Alfred & Rose Addy (1904). Image by courtesy of Fred Addy & his family, USA.
Alfred Addy (1866 – 1930) was a Bradford-born painter and art dealer. He moved to the USA in 1906, and one of his paintings is now in The White House Collection.
Alfred was the son of William Addy, a wool buyer, and mother, Louisa. He was one of seven children and his early years were spent in the family home on Main Street, Bingley. William and Louisa, although both born in Britain, had spent some time in the USA, most likely in connection with William’s work as a wool buyer. Their two oldest children, Hannah and John, had both been born in Illinois in the USA.
Waves Crashing Against the Shore. Image: in a private collection.
William Addy died in 1873, when Alfred was only 7, and by 1881 Louisa Addy, her children, and a live-in servant had moved to Grosvenor Terrace in the Manningham district of Bradford. Louisa’s occupation was recorded on the 1881 census as ‘Accountant’, and Alfred, now aged 15, was shown as employed as a solicitor’s clerk.
However, in 1884 Alfred passed a public examination qualifying him for a free scholarship to study at an advanced level in the art department of Bradford Technical College. The course would have lasted at least two years and between 1896 and 1903 it is known he was exhibiting his artwork at national shows, including The Royal Academy (RA) and Glasgow Institute of Fine Arts (GI).
By 1901 he was registered in the national census as an artist and fine art dealer, living at home in Manningham, and working from premises in Harrogate, titled ‘The Scottish Gallery’, in Crescent Road, then, as it still is now, a prestigious retail and cultural part of the town.
Alfred’s own well-executed artwork, including of local scenes, are likely to have proven popular with his Harrogate customers – the exhibition of his paintings at the RA and GI would have undoubtedly enhanced his reputation with local art collectors.
Little Alnscliffe Crag. Image: by courtesy of Stuart Smith.
A View of Knaresborough. Image: in a private collection.
In 1904 Alfred married Rose Dawson Rimmington, a daughter of a Knaresborough farmer, and the couple had two children, Constance and Louisa, whilst living in Britain.
In September 1906, Alfred and Rose, and their two young children, emigrated to America, sailing from Liverpool, and settled in Framington, Middlesex, Massachusetts; another child, a son, William, was later born into the family in America. Their choice of country to settle in may well have been influenced by his parent’s earlier travels to the USA, and the birth heritage and experiences of his older siblings
Alfred found employment, most likely in the art department, with Dennisons, a US company that designed and manufactured tags and labels. But it is known that he continued to paint mostly landscape scenes in the US, and these continue to appear on auction sites in the USA and elsewhere (see example below).
Landscape (USA) circa 1921. Image: in a private collection.
One of his US paintings was of the Presidential Yacht, ‘Mayflower’, (see below), which is now in The White House Art Collection and is featured in the book, Art in The White House: A Nation’s Pride (1992) by William Kloss.
The Presidential Yacht, ‘Mayflower’. Image: The White House Collection.
The Addy family moved to Boston, where Alfred died. Rose and her children stayed in America, where she and they became naturalized as US citizens.
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Sources: with thanks and acknowledgement of the prior work and research by Stuart Smith, of Bawtry, South Yorkshire, and for his generous help in preparing this profile of Alfred Addy,. Thanks also to Fred Addy. great-great-grandson of the artist, and his family in the USA, for the photograph of the artist.
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(The life and work of Alfred Addy, as described above, should not be confused with another artist of the same name: the US born photographer/painter Alfred Addy, 1910 – 1998)