‘Bulls Head Inn’, Westgate, Bradford. Image: courtesy of Dr.David Starley
The watercolour artist, Arthur McArthur (1827 -1892) painted architectural scenes in the Bradford district that are now of important historical interest.
He was born circa 1827 in France to British parents, but in both the 1841 and 1851 censuses he is recorded as living in Leicester. By 1861 his profession was recorded on the census of that year as a Lithographic Artist and resident in lodgings at Little Horton in Bradford.
In 1867 he married Eleanor Smith from Bradford, who was also a watercolour artist. He and Eleanor moved to Nottingham, where their first child, Arthur, is born, but returned to Bradford, where they were living at the births of a daughter in 1873 and twins in 1875.
Wool Packs Inn, Lower Kirkgate, Bradford. Image: courtesy of Dr.David Starley
He and the family remained in Bradford and were listed in the 1881 census as living at 173 Horton Road. Hs older brother Charles and his daughter, Alice were also listed as painters in 1881 census and lived at Ilkley at that time. However, by 1886 Arthur and the family had moved again, this time to North Meols, near Southport, in Lancashire. He died in 1892 and his death was recorded at Ormskirk, Lancashire.
Fishing Scene (The Netherlands?). Image: from a private collection.
Arthur also painted landscape and seascape scenes both in Britain and in Europe (see example above). Harry Turnbull in his 1976 book, ‘Artists of Yorkshire: A Short Dictionary’, briefly mentions the artist as having also ‘painted cathedrals and other picturesque Continental scenes.’
Although Bradford was just one of the places he lived and worked, his paintings made during his time in the city, particularly during the 1870s, now make an important contribution to the architectural history of the Bradford district. The mid to late period of the 19th century was a time of great change in Bradford city centre as old buildings were demolished as the city expanded and new buildings replaced the old. A local art dealer, Alfred Megson, saw the opportunities in illustrating the older parts of the city for posterity and commercial gain and commissioned another artist, N.S. Crichton, to paint the vanishing scene.
It is likely that McArthur too saw and seized any commissioned or freelance opportunity to illustrate the older buildings for those in the city that valued their memory and wanted a pictorial record of them. His painting, below, of the Old Justice Court, behind the New Inn, is an example of this, as the court room, seen at the top of the steps, with holding cells seen below, was only used for a relatively short time prior to 1834, when a new courthouse was opened in Hall Ings.
Old Justice Court, Bradford
The Bradford historian and artist, William Scruton, described McArthur as a ‘local artist of ‘considerable ability’ in the preface of his 1889 ‘Pen and Pencil Pictures of Old Bradford‘ and used a number of McArthur’s paintings as a basis for his own line drawing illustrations in his book.
Arthur McArthur was also commissioned (most likely by the architect, George Smith) to record the transformation of Cliffe Hall at Keighley into a much larger and grander building that was renamed as Cliffe Castle. The alterations to the building took place between 1875 and 1885 and McArthur’s watercolour below, circa 1878, shows the transformed building, complete with turrets, newly added conservatory, and garden front. The watercolour is now on display at the Cliffe Castle Museum and Gallery.
(With thanks to local artist, Dr. David Starley, and historian, Dr. Paul Jennings, for their own research and significant contributions to the profile of Arthur McArthur shown here.)