![]() ![]() In 1897, he married Agnes, a daughter of the painter John MacWhirter. He also found success as a painter of society portraits. He specialized in neo-classical fantasies, typically idealized scenes of women and children (and sometimes fairies and fauns) in outdoor settings. In 1897 he exhibited Childhood, which "established his mastery of the effects of sunlight" it was shown at the Paris Salon of 1900 and purchased by the French State (it is now at the Musée d'Orsay). In the need of bursaries to support himself, he moved back to London and enrolled at the Royal Academy Schools in 1893, but "his Parisian insolence and cavalier ways alienated the authorities, and in 1895 he was unceremoniously expelled." ĭespite the expulsion, Sims "had gained the confidence to start painting bacchanalian scenes of revelry, executed with astonishing flair," including The Vine in 1896, his first painting to be exhibited at the Royal Academy. Turning his back on a mercantile career, he decided to study art, and in 1890 enrolled at the South Kensington College of Art before moving back to Paris for two years at the Académie Julian. Initially apprenticed in the drapery business, at age 14 he was sent to Paris, where he learned French. As his son and biographer Alan Sims writes, "His lameness…remained always a considerable burden," and "had much to do with the peculiar direction of his art towards playful subjects and athletic technique," so that "the most notable characteristics" included "a prepossession with the swift movement of flawless bodies bathed in sunlight and air" and "a determination to escape from the actual confines of physical life into a region of his own fancy.…The charm of his happiest pictures is heightened by this pathos." This disability was to have a profound influence on his work as an artist. His earliest memories were of painful physiotherapy, and as a child he was unable to fully participate in physical activities. An injury in infancy threatened his life and resulted in lifelong lameness in one leg. ![]() He died by suicide in 1928.īorn in Islington, London, Sims was the son of a costume manufacturer. Sims' final paintings, the Spiritual Ideas, were to some viewers his "most beautiful works," but to others highly disturbing. At the same time, he became estranged from his wife and children. ![]() In 1920, he was appointed Keeper, or head, of the Royal Academy Schools, a post he was eventually forced to resign in 1926. He initially became renowned as a leading Edwardian painter, but following the death of his son in World War I, his work became increasingly idiosyncratic, surreal and controversial. Boswells) was a British figurative painter known for his portraits and landscapes. Académie Julian, Royal Academy Schools (expelled)Īn Island Festival (1907) Clio and the Children (1913/15) the Spiritual Ideas (series, 1927-28)Ĭharles Henry Sims RA RWS (28 January 1873, Islington–13 April 1928, St. ![]()
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