(1861 -1923)
Published in Windlesora 25 (2009)
© WLHG
George Henton was born in Leicester in 1861, son of a banker’s clerk, and was taught painting by Wilmot Pilsbury, first principal of Leicester School of Art. He was a member of the Leicester Society of Artists and began exhibing at the Royal Academy in 1884. He was interested in antiquarianism and the preservation of buildings of architectural interest and joined the Leicester Archaeological Society. He never married, lived for much of his life with his mother in Leicester and died of apoplexy on 21 April 1924.
He was one of three artists from Leicester who have left a record of Windsor from the 1860s to the first two decades of the nineteenth century. The first was Alfred Young Nutt who came to Windsor in 1867 to work as an architect at Windsor Castle. He became greatly involved in activities in the town including the art classes held in the Mechanics Institute which had been supported by Prince Albert. Here he became a friend of Princess Helena and Princess Beatrice, the Queen’s youngest daughters who lived with their mother even after their marriages. The committee that promoted these classes included the castle librarian Richard Holmes, the local MP, members of Eton College and various citizens of Windsor. Alfred Nutt became surveyor of St. George’s Chapel in 1873, was given residence in Garden House in the castle in 1884 and became Clerk of Works at the castle in 1901. In addition he carried out many private commissions in the town which included designing ceremonial arches for the town’s celebrations of Queen Victoria’s Jubilees in 1887 and 1897.
During the early years of Nutt’s life in Windsor Harry Ward, a friend from his days in Leicester, was a frequent visitor. After three sketching tours together, Ward came to Windsor at the invitation of his friend and settled in the town in 1871. Ward commenced a series of local sketches and pictures in which the castle was a prominent feature and he quickly gained patrons, including members of the Royal Family. He became drawing instructor to Princess Beatrice, and Queen Victoria commissioned from him a painting of the mausoleum of the Prince Consort. Harry Ward was the best man at Alfred Nutt’s wedding in June 1873, but after a short illness, he died in October 1873.
From around 1890, George Henton was a regular visitor, staying with the Nutt family in Garden House. Henton was industrious and though he cultivated ‘olde world charm” his work shows sensitivity to colour, light and atmosphere, has a recognisable quality. He painted in oils and water colours and his taste was for an exact reproduction of any subject he painted. He was particularly adept at tendering the colour effect of mellowed brickwork and this can be best seen in a painting of Mrs. Nutt in the garden of Garden House, where part of the picture 1s taken up with a brick wall. This picture is in the Windsor and Borough Museum’s collection. In the 1890s he exhibited pictures of the Windsor area at the Royal Academy. These included views of the Long Walk and Eton College (1896), the School Yard Eton College (1897), Church Street and River Street (1898) and Brewer’s Yard Eton College (1898).
In 1908 George Henton published a book in co-operation with Sir Richard Holmes, at that time librarian at Windsor Castle, which included twenty paintings of Windsor around the time of the turn of the century. Twelve pictures are of the town and surrounding places and the other eight are of the castle and St George’s Chapel. The pictures were also published on their own as a separate book. Five original water-colour paintings by George Henton are in the Windsor and Royal Borough Museum’s collection and an oil painting of Eventide Jesus Hospital in Bray painted in 1891.
George Henton was also an enthusiastic photographer. His photograph collection is held in the Leicester, Leicestershire and Rutland Record Office and includes many Windsor scenes of places and people, in the town, by the river and in the field at Eton Wick at harvest time. From these we get information about dress and transport, and photos of local Windsorians at work and at play. He was particularly good at photographing children, putting them at their ease and acting naturally. He used his photos to help him when painting the pictures for his book. Several of these include children. The painting entitled Windsor Market — Early Morning includes a boy looking after the horse and cart, and in the picture of Church Street we see several children at play. A boy out shopping with his mother in Peascod Street is holding on to the big pram in which sits a younger member of the family. Some show children out shopping with a parent and all make an important contribution to local history especially as cach 1s dated, gives the time of day and often the weather conditions when the photograph was taken. Copies of many of these photos are held in the Windsor and Royal Borough Museum’s store In Tinkers’ Lane, Windsor.
The combination of paintings and photographs by Henton provide a comprehensive and important portrait of Windsor in the last two decades of the nineteenth century and the first decade of the twentieth century.
Norman Oxley
Bibliography
Oxley, Norman, AYNutt. In Service to Three Monarchs at Windsor.
Victorian County Histories for Leicester.
The front cover picture for Windlesora 25 is by George Henton and is in the Windsor and Royal Borough Museum’s picture collection.
Windsor Local History Group 