William Stevens is seated left of picture, aged around 16.
On the 9th January, 1911, the Saltaire artist, William Capling Stevens, was found dead in the kitchen of his house in Albert Terrace, Saltaire. He was 39 years old and had been dead for over 3 weeks. Stevens was described at the time as both ‘reclusive’ and ‘eccentric’. He rarely spoke to his neighbours and was estranged from his family, who lived less than a mile away.
After his death scores of his paintings were found in his rented house and sold at auction for just a few pence each. They were exhibited in 1970 in Bradford to acclaim from local art commentators. A newspaper report at that time noted that it had been rumoured that Stevens had died of starvation and this was repeated in the 1976 edition of ‘Yorkshire Artists: a short dictionary’, by Harry Turnbull.
But was that true? Research on the life and death of Stevens for this site presents another version of events. Read it here at William Stevens