A John Charlton Sketch. Note 7.

The other day there was an interesting story in the Daily Telegraph about the bed-ridden activity of a Cyril Fellowes, when aged 13. In 1902 he was laid up with a bad hip in a Harley Street clinic. To pass the time he wrote letters to a number of the "great and good" (the DT correspondent, Nick Britten's, term) requesting their autographs. Undaunted by rank or position and with the aid of addresses probably provided by his father, he wrote to such luminaries as Rudyard Kipling, Baden-Powell, W.G. Grace and Scott (embarking on Antartic fame). Perhaps less well known among Cyril's list was the sporting artist John Charlton (1849-1917). Charlton provided a lively sketch of a galloping horse's head (illustrated in the DT) above his full signature: he usually signed his drawings JC.

John Charlton was born at Bamburgh, Northumberland and while apprenticed to an iron-master, Sir Isaac Bell, he was also attending Newcastle Art School under the tuition of William Bell Scott. Coming to London he worked for a time at the South Kensington Museum, first exhibiting a painting of "Harrowing" at the Royal Academy in 1870. In 1899 he was commissioned by Queen Victoria to paint her arrival at St Paul's Cathedral for the Diamond Jubillee Service,(RA 1899). Charlton regularly exhibited animal paintings and portraits at the RA until 1904. He became a member of the Royal Society of British Artists and both the Royal Institutes of Painters in Watercolours and of Painters in Oil-Colours.

His often large scale equestrian portraits are an advance on the solemnity of Sir Francis Grant but fall short of the light and colour brio of a Sir Alfred Munnings' hunting group. Charlton's book illustrations of hunting are drawn with the knowledge of personal experience.

Many of his portraits were painted on commission and remain largely unseen in the houses of the descendants of his patrons. There are a few of his pictures in northern galleries: The Gray Art Gallery, Hartlepool (1); Laing AG, Newcastle (1); Shipley AG, Gateshead (2); and South Shields Museum (1). Once the home of the Morgan family (who became Viscounts Tredegar), Tredegar House, Newport, South Wales now belongs to Newport City Council, and here there are five paintings by Charlton. They include two hunting portraits (painted in 1884 and 1893); a portrait of the family's keeper, Hazell, and spaniels (1904); and a seated portrait of Godfrey Morgan (1831-1913) with his Skye terrier "Peeps". As a captian in the 17th Lancers Godfrey Morgan took part in the Charge of the Light Brigade in the Crimean War. Charlton also painted a retrospective picture of the 'Charge' in 1905 showing Morgan astride his horse "Sir Briggs": Both Peeps and Sir Briggs are buried in the garden of Tredegar House!

John Charlton returned north and died at Lanercost, Cumberland in November 1917.

In the DT sketch the horse's outstretched head and neck, all fire and vigour, can be identified by its bridle as being a military charger, (thank you, Sally Mitchell). Sadly, Cyril Fellowes died of blackwater fever in India, aged 25, four years before Charlton's death. His autograph book was sold at Hanson's Auctioneers, Etwall, Derbyshire on 19 June for a disappointing £440. The DT had mentioned an estimate of £5,000!.