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Humble Beginnings of
an Artistic Master - E Owen Jennings
Carolyn M
Gilbody marks the centenary of one of
the Dales' most respected painters.
Dalesman - December 1999
Supplied by: Mrs Anne Akeroyd
On 28 December, one hundred years ago, E Owen
Jennings was born in the village of Cowling. His life
and work will be recognised in a small display of
watercolours, engravings and memorabilia as part of the
Royal Watercolour Society annual exhibition at the
Bankside Gallery in London this month.
Owen Jennings' father, Wesley, was in the textile trade
all his life; he had started as a worsted spinner aged
only 10. He was a warp dresser in one of the mills in
Cowling, where he and his wife Elizabeth had three sons,
Hermon, Owen and Randel. In 1906 the family moved to
Skipton. Perhaps due to his friendship with Philip
Snowden, a famous son of Cowling who became Chancellor
of the Exchequer. Wesley was a keen member of the
Independent Labour Party and a member of Skipton council
from 1913 until his death in 1932.
He was chairman of the council from 1929 to 1931 and a
magistrate. Although his three sons took no active part
in politics, the ethos of hard work and thrift was
firmly in place and a policy which they followed all
their lives.
Owen Jennings' deep love of drawing from a very young
age laid the foundations for his future career. He
attended the Skipton School of Art and Science (now
Craven College) under the brilliant headship of W T
Shuttieworth, where he studied book binding, textile
design and crafts. He won a craft scholarship to the
Leeds College of Art and in 1922 gained a City and
Guilds Diploma in Bookbinding (first class), the Silver
Medal and the Skinners Company first prize. 11 was here
he met his future wife. May Culling-worth, a fashion
design student.
In 1923 he went to the Royal College of Art in London
where his studies included illustration, lettering,
etching and engraving. After only 12 months' study
(usually two years) he sat the etching examination
gaining 299 rnarks out of a possible 300. His skill in
drawing, developed from a young age, was of great
benefit to him since a high standard of drawing was
essential in those days. Spare time was spent in the
museums, art galleries and haunting the secondhand
bookshops of Charing Cross Road. Everywhere he went his
sketchbook was in his pocket a habit never lost.
In 1925 he was awarded the Royal College diploma, the
same year that he had his first picture accepted by the
Royal Academy an engraving entitled Mill Bridge,
Skipton. This was the first of as his work was
subsequently exhibited In the RA almost every year until
1967.
Jennings ambition was to teach crafts in an art school
and in 1926 he gained the teacher's diploma at the RCA.
His enthusiasm for the work, his encouragement and good
humour his gentle demeanour endeared him to all who knew
him. He fulfilled his ambition very successfully during
his entire teaching career. Appointed to Doncaster
school of Art in 1926 as second master he taught life
drawing and bookbinding. During this period he made and
bound in tooled morocco the visitors book for Doncaster
Mansion House
1929 found Owen Jennings back .U the Leeds College of
Art when he was appointed assistant master and head of
the etching and engraving section t He was loved and
respected by his students and under his tuition, a very
high standard of work was achieved. He had a way of
getting through to every student in one case lie
invented a kind of sign language for a near-deaf and
dumb student.
In 1929 he married May and they spent their honeymoon in
Paris and in Italy in those days a great adventure. They
spent their time drawing and sketching the results
forming a basis for future work Jennings engraving The
Flower Seller won the second Logan Prize for engraving
it the International Exhibition of Prints in Chicago.
Leeds City Art Gallery owns a copy. His engraving Sand
Cart. Sienna accepted by the Royal Academy in 1932 was
reviewed in Fine Prints of the Year. 1932, and this
print is in the collections of the Victoria and Albert
Museum and the British museum.
In 1934 Owen and May with their baby son left their
beloved Yorkshire fm Kent where lie had been appointed
headmaster of the School of Art in Tunbridge Wells. A
daughter later completed the family. The school thought
small thrived under Jennings leadership it occupied the
top floor of a three-storey building which was also the
home of the technical institute. Here the staff of both
establishments worked easily together, sharing the same
building. The co-operation and friendships deepened
during the war years when Tunbridge Wells was in Bomb
Alley the direct route from the coast of France it)
London. The: Battle of Britain was fought above their
heads, and bombs which were intended for London fell.
The school's printing presses were to be disabled in the
event of an invasion. staff took it in turns to do the
fire-watching with rnany a tale to tell about the aerial
battles above, while the, children collected hot
shrapnel in the streets. Though not an official war
artist, Jennings recorded what he could in the local
area and in London, including a very fine drawing of St
Paul's Cathedral surrounded by barrage balloons and the
old Shut Tower on the Thames embankment.
In 1943 he was made Assoc iate of the Royal Society of
Painters in Watercolours and in 1944 Associate of the
Royal Society of Painter Etchers and Engravers, with
full membership of the R W in 1950 and the RE in 1970.
Owen and May never lost their love of Yorkshire and for
many years the family holidays wore spent in Skipton;
long hot days with picnic lunches, sketching around the
Dales; Malham, Gordale Scar. Settle, Embsay Crag, and in
Linton where they would visit their friend Arthur
Raistrick. While the parents sketched the children
played and explored contentedly looking for wild
flowers, butterflies and fossils in the drystone walls.
Sometimes Jennings would include the names of his family
in his paintings on a shop front or on boats in a
harbour.
He had a great love of literature and poetry in
particular He loved comic verse (perhaps the Yorkshire
diet of Gilbert and Sullivan Operas had something to do
with it) and had an apt and humorous quotation or verse
to spice his conversations. He was liable to burst into
song should the occasion merit it. He had a fund of
funny stories and anecdotes and would remember with
relish two ladies in Settle. After watching the progress
of his work (engraving of Settle marketplace) throughout
the day, one said to the other "Aye, - it's all reet, if
tha's nowt better to do. "
From the 1950s holidays were spent mainly in Paris and
later in the south of France with their good friend
Vincent Lines (Principal of the Hastings School of Art)
who had an old farm house there. Holidays were painting
times, there being no chance during the school term.
At the Tunbridge Wells School of Art grew and developed
under the guidance of its headmaster, new premises were
required and the move was made around 1956 into what had
been the Old Town Hall. Here his Yorkshire thriftiness
lei him down! In order to conserve funds, books for the
school library were bought second hand to keep within
the budget while another school always exceeded its
budget. To his dismay, Jennings' allowance was then cut
while that of the other school was increased.
Owen Jennings retired in 1965, but maintained a great
interest III the (cm town tic haul adopted. He and May
had a great many friends and were members of many
societies, including the Art Club, the Antiques Society.
the Film Society, the Local History Society and the
Rotary Club. May died in 1977; they had been very
happily married almost 5Q years. He continued it) paint
mainly from his sketchbooks, and to travel to London for
the various exhibitions for it few more years until
his-- death in 1985. From the 1920s, almost to the end
of his life, family and friends were delighted to
receive each Christmas exquisite wood engravings as his
personal Christmas card: many are still treasured by the
recipients.
Owen en Jennings work has been exhibited in various
permanent collections as well as in galleries around the
world including Chicago, Vienna, New York, Paris and in
many travelling exhibitions. The small display to be
mounted within the Royal Watercolour Society exhibition
in London this month will mark the centenary of the
birth of this Yorkshire artist just prior to the
beginning of a new millennium. He used to say, "If only
I had been born four days later, in the 20th century and
not in the 19th. I would not Seem quite so old!" |
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The Jennings
Family in Skipton - c1920
(Left to right) Elizabeth, Owen,
Randel, Hermon and Wesley. |
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