Studio: international art (72.1918)

Frank Huddlestone Potter

STUDY OF A CHILD OIL PAINTING BY F. H. POTTER

(By courtesy of Messrs. Wallis
& Son, the French Gallery)

regard for his high character, his chivalry,
and his love of children. Mrs. Whelan’s
portrait in a coloured reproduction appears
on another page with two other studies
from the French Gallery. Nothing gave him
greater pleasure than to attend to the crea-
ture comforts of his little models, to buy
them dainty dolls, or to treat them and his
other small worshippers to the pantomime or
the circus. After leaving school Potter entered
as a student at Heatherley’s in Newman Street,
and subsequently studied in the Royal Academy
Schools. He spent a few months in Antwerp
and on his return he exhibited a bright study of
a Girl’s Head in the Academy Exhibition of 1870,
another Girl's Head appearing in the following
year’s exhibition. He did not show again at
the Academy until eleven years later ; but from
1871 until 1885 his pictures were shown at the
British Artists’, of which he became a member
in 1877, and in other exhibitions. His pictures

of the City of London. Of
the large family one only
still remains. Frank was
born in Bloomsbury on
April 25, 1845 ; one of his
uncles was Cipriani Potter,
an accomplished musician of
the period and first Presi-
dent of the Royal Academy
of Music, which he was
largely instrumental in
founding. In his early
years Potter met many in-
teresting people: but he

was always delicate and
shy and had an incurable
stutter, which became espe-
cially persistent when he
was thrown among strangers.
Throughout his life he made
comparatively few friends,
but those who enjoyed the
privilege, such as Mrs.
Whelan and her devoted
daughters, Mr. J. B. Yeats,
the Irish poet, Mr. F. Farrer,
and Mr. Percy Thomas the
etcher, had a very great

BY FRANK H. POTTER

151

"LITTLE DORMOUSE"

(Tate Callery)