Giant Stories
Artistic Adventures
Two brothers running away to the Circus to escape a career in clock-making might seem like the beginning of a story in itself, and in the case of Wellington’s artistic heritage, it really is! However, there was more than one fraternal dynasty launched on the world from the town, and both would go on to make their mark in the heady world of nineteenth century high society London.
Clocking Off
Nathaniel Plimer (born 1757) and his younger brother Andrew (who arrived in 1763) were apparently so unhappy at the prospect of being apprenticed to their father’s Wellington-based clock making business they ran away to join a travelling gypsy troupe. Venturing through Wales and the West Country for two years, the siblings honed the fine art skills they’d developed at home to create miniature paintings — before setting in London in 1781, where they entered domestic service. Fortunately, they landed with exactly the right employers: Nathaniel with enamellist Henry Bone and Andrew with Richard Cosway, possibly the finest English miniaturist of the period.
In Miniature
With the assistance and training of their mentors, the two brothers were soon able to establish their own reputations as miniaturists, producing an extensive array of small-scale portraits for a growing and well-heeled client base. Exhibiting at the Royal Academy was an important aspect of drumming-up business for any artist, and the pair quickly established a pattern they would replicate many times: Andrew, for instance, exhibited every year between 1786 and 1810, while Nathaniel’s work would appear there 26 times in total. However, it seems Andrew (who is generally regarded as the more skilled of the two) eventually began to lose custom in the capital and was forced to travel much further afield to earn a living. In fact, poor eyesight would eventually force him to abandon altogether miniature portraiture for large-scale canvasses before retiring to Brighton around 1830. Nathaniel appears to have remained capital-based but spent around a decade in Edinburgh in the early years of the nineteenth century. It would not be the last time the Scottish city would feature in Wellington’s artistic story.
A Stones Throw Away
Husband and wife William and Elizabeth Ruth Lawson moved from Edinburgh to Wellington sometime before 1841, when their eldest child David Arthur (who would exhibit at the Royal Academy in 1860) was born in the town. William, a portrait painter, was a native of Dundee, and provided the Scottish-connection with which the family became synonymous. However, it’s fair to say Wellington was a far more significant portent attending the formation of this artistic dynasty. By the time the Lawson’s left for Bristol (where in 1851 they resided at Marlborough Hill Place), another four boys had been born to Elizabeth at their home in modern day New Church Road.
A talented artist in her own right (who was apparently known for her flower paintings), it was she who provided the link to the Shropshire town, having been born there in 1822 under the maiden name Stones (a family that, it seems likely, owned a Walker Street-based yarn dealing and chair making business). In 1843, her second son Wilfrid was born and it was he who would really establish the family name: as a talented illustrator working for titles such as the Cornhill Magazine, a monthly literary journal, and The Graphic, an influential weekly illustrated newspaper. Like his elder brother he would also exhibit at the Royal Academy, between 1867 and ‘84. Five years later, in 1848, Malcolm, was born. Breaking the mould somewhat, his career path would take a musical turn: as a composer, conductor and organist who studied throughout Europe and was a prolific writer of drawing room songs. He is perhaps best known for his popular arrangement of the Skye Boat Song.
A Stones Throw Away
Husband and wife William and Elizabeth Ruth Lawson moved from Edinburgh to Wellington sometime before 1841, when their eldest child David Arthur (who would exhibit at the Royal Academy in 1860) was born in the town. William, a portrait painter, was a native of Dundee, and provided the Scottish-connection with which the family became synonymous. However, it’s fair to say Wellington was a far more significant portent attending the formation of this artistic dynasty. By the time the Lawson’s left for Bristol (where in 1851 they resided at Marlborough Hill Place), another four boys had been born to Elizabeth at their home in modern day New Church Road.
A talented artist in her own right (who was apparently known for her flower paintings), it was she who provided the link to the Shropshire town, having been born there in 1822 under the maiden name Stones (a family that, it seems likely, owned a Walker Street-based yarn dealing and chair making business). In 1843, her second son Wilfrid was born and it was he who would really establish the family name: as a talented illustrator working for titles such as the Cornhill Magazine, a monthly literary journal, and The Graphic, an influential weekly illustrated newspaper. Like his elder brother he would also exhibit at the Royal Academy, between 1867 and ‘84. Five years later, in 1848, Malcolm, was born. Breaking the mould somewhat, his career path would take a musical turn: as a composer, conductor and organist who studied throughout Europe and was a prolific writer of drawing room songs. He is perhaps best known for his popular arrangement of the Skye Boat Song.
Immaturity
Another son, William (who sadly appears to have died before 1861), was born in 1845 but by far the most celebrated Wellingtonian in the family was Cecil Lawson, who arrived in December 1849 (and not, as many biographies state, 1851). A precocious talent, who by the age of four had already started composing large-scale landscapes, his initial training was provided by his father and brother Wilfrid — although he was largely self-taught. While the family left Wellington not long after his birth, according to his biographer Edmund Gosse, Cecil returned to Shropshire at the age of eight to live on a farm in an unnamed location for two years. It was here, Gosse attests, that he first sketched in the open air.
Lawson, who exhibited at the Grosvenor Gallery and the Royal Academy, became a feted artist in society circles within his own lifetime, which was tragically cut short by respiratory illness in 1882. The Lawson’s London years were well-remembered by the playwright and author George Bernard Shaw, who became briefly acquainted with the family (via Malcolm, who was at the time conducting the Gluck Society) at their fashionable Cheyne Walk address in Chelsea. While he found its artistic atmosphere “most congenial” Cecil, he observed, “was the spoilt child of that household”, and would provide the inspiration for the character of Cyril Rhodes in Bernard-Shaw’s first novel Immaturity.
Lawson, who exhibited at the Grosvenor Gallery and the Royal Academy, became a feted artist in society circles within his own lifetime, which was tragically cut short by respiratory illness in 1882. The Lawson’s London years were well-remembered by the playwright and author George Bernard Shaw, who became briefly acquainted with the family (via Malcolm, who was at the time conducting the Gluck Society) at their fashionable Cheyne Walk address in Chelsea. While he found its artistic atmosphere “most congenial” Cecil, he observed, “was the spoilt child of that household” and would provide the inspiration for the character of Cyril Rhodes in Bernard-Shaw’s first novel Immaturity.
Immaturity
Another son, William (who sadly appears to have died before 1861), was born in 1845 but by far the most celebrated Wellingtonian in the family was Cecil Lawson, who arrived in December 1849 (and not, as many biographies state, 1851). A precocious talent, who by the age of four had already started composing large-scale landscapes, his initial training was provided by his father and brother Wilfrid — although he was largely self-taught. While the family left Wellington not long after his birth, according to his biographer Edmund Gosse, Cecil returned to Shropshire at the age of eight to live on a farm in an unnamed location for two years. It was here, Gosse attests, that he first sketched in the open air.
In Fountain Place
The Lawson family home at Fountain Place (which has long since lost that name) survives as a semi-detached property in New Church Road — to which a blue plaque celebrating its connection to Cecil is currently affixed. For some time, examples of his work remained in Wellington, too, as part of an art collection belonging to Elizabeth Hiatt, friend of the family and founder of a well-known local girls’ school. In June 1909, the Daily Telegraph reported the sale of four sketches and a still life from her estate, which were said to have been painted by Lawson “as a lad of 17 or 18.” They realised some 57 guineas (around £7180 today).
Details of the Plimer (sometimes spelt Plymer) brothers early life in Wellington are frustratingly slight. We know that Andrew was baptised at All Saints parish church but, beyond that, the whereabouts of their father’s clock making business, or any other details of their local lives, are unknown. Happily, on the corner of Bell Street and New Street, a flavour of those early years in Georgian Wellington is captured for posterity in a mural from the town’s Makers’ Dozen trail. It depicts the young pair packing their bags and stealing away for a life in the circus!
In Fountain Place
The Lawson family home at Fountain Place (which has long since lost that name) survives as a semi-detached property in New Church Road — to which a blue plaque celebrating its connection to Cecil is currently affixed. For some time, examples of his work remained in Wellington, too, as part of an art collection belonging to Elizabeth Hiatt, friend of the family and founder of a well-known local girls’ school. In June 1909, the Daily Telegraph reported the sale of four sketches and a still life from her estate, which were said to have been painted by Lawson “as a lad of 17 or 18.” They realised some 57 guineas (around £7180 today).
Details of the Plimer (sometimes spelt Plymer) brothers early life in Wellington are frustratingly slight. We know that Andrew was baptised at All Saints parish church but, beyond that, the whereabouts of their father’s clock making business, or any other details of their local lives, are unknown. Happily, on the corner of Bell Street and New Street, a flavour of those early years in Georgian Wellington is captured for posterity in a mural from the town’s Makers’ Dozen trail. It depicts the young pair packing their bags and stealing away for a life in the circus!