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Wardle, Arthur, 1864-1949 Study of a setter Chalk

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Arthur Wardle
1864-1949

The London-born painter, noted primarily as an animal painter, Arthur Wardle studied art privately and was otherwise largely self-taught. In the first two decades of the 20th century, Wardle was one of the best known of living British animal painters. He portrayed an astonishing diversity of subjects with an engaging naturalism, and a command of different media.

Wardle had two great talents: one was an extraordinary ability to capture the appearance of animals in their natural environment, which derived from his knowledge of anatomy and long hours of intense observation and precise sketching. The other was his understanding of and expression of animal character: his animals are free of self-consciousness and of the anthropomorphism which mars so much nineteenth century animal art.