JOHN WILLIAM HOWEY 1873 – 1938
Howey was born in West Hartlepool in 1873 and, like so many of the Staithes
artists, began painting at an early age. He was largely self taught, but received a very good grounding in drawing at the West Hartlepool School of Art where he was taught by the Headmaster, landscape artist Edwin Ely Denyer. Howey began working in oils and watercolours in his late teens.
He did not have the confidence to make painting a full time career and became a collector for the West Hartlepool Gas and Water Company, rising to become the head of their collection service.
Although he painted in both oils and watercolours Howey’s best work is, generally speaking, in oils. When a good watercolour does appear, it is certainly worth buying. Unusually for a member of the Staithes Group, he frequently applied oil paint with a palette knife or with a thick brush. His impasto is readily recognisable. The Director of the Gray Art Gallery and Museum in Hartlepool, Major J. A. Louis Downey described his work in a 1925 catalogue of an exhibition of his pictures as follows:
‘He paints in a virile and forceful manner, making a special study of sunlight effects, and has developed his individual art by his own close observation of nature…..
‘He is equally successful in landscape work or portraiture. In his landscapes he shows us just those qualities of the English countryside which we love and appreciate. In his portraiture he introduces character and the vital spark as well as likeness.’
We have acted as agents for the Howey family for thirty years, handling works for them by both John William and his son, Robert Leslie Howey.
Howey has works in the collections of public galleries in Hartlepool and Whitby. He exhibited many pictures at the Gray Art Gallery, Hartlepool and a total of seventy oil paintings and eight watercolours in exhibitions of the Artists of the Northern Counties at the Laing Gallery, Newcastle-upon-Tyne between 1909 and 1939 (including two exhibited posthumously). He also exhibited at Sunderland Public Art Gallery and the Royal Institute of Oil Painters.
Bibliography:
Staithes Group Centenary Exhibition, Rosamund Jordan 2003
The Art of J.W. Howey of West Hartlepool, Spring Exhibition 1925, The Gray Art Gallery,
Hartlepool.
The Artists of Northumbria, Marshall Hall, 2nd Edition, Titus Wilson & son Ltd., Kendal,
1982.
The Staithes Group, Peter Phillips, Phillips and Sons, Marlow 1993.
The Dictionary of British Artists 1880 – 1940, J. Johnson & A. Greutzner, Antique
Collectors’ Club, Woodbridge 1976
Thanks to Mr. David Howey for further information.
© Rosamund Jordan 2005 (Please contact me before quoting from the above information publically, and credit myself and this website)
