25 November 2020

Samuel Scott Sudlow (1865–1951), Artist, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia

I last mentioned Samuel Scott Sudlow in April 2015, although it wasn't until a few days ago that Stewart Sudlow, Samuel's grandson, contacted me with these photos of paintings by his grandfather. I have copied the contents of the original post below, thank Stewart for sending me these, and look forward to receiving more, which shall be added to this post. These are Stewart's recollections of his grandfather:

"As a young boy together with sister and younger brother, every Sunday our parents took us to Belmore where my grandparents lived for Sunday dinner, sometimes when we arrived my grandfather would be in the front garden doing some weeding in a collar and tie and waistcoat, you can’t take England out of an Englishman. There was sign by the front door, saying Delamere, which in later years I learned that it referred to Delamere forest. My brother had it on his house in Tasmania.

My grandmother would be in kitchen, and more often than not we would find my grandfather in his studio at the end of the shed. There would be my grandfather seated in a lounge chair in front of his easel painting. He was also a carpenter and joiner by trade. He made all of their furniture. Now and again he also played the piano.

I recall racks against the wall where he stored his finished paintings. I do remember a painting of a dog probably a neighbour dog. I was 12 when my grandfather died I don’t Know what happened to most of the paintings, but I know my grandmother got rid of all his oils,  watercolours and brushes. I think she was annoyed that he spent more time in his studio than in the house. That’s about all I can remember of my grandfather."

'Across the Park Early Morning 1950.'
 
'Cloud Effect, Cronulla NSW.' My original post on Sudlow:

In Poets, Poems, and Rhymes of East Cheshire (1908) Thomas Middleton devotes a few pages to the forgotten Samuel Scott Sudlow (1865–1951), who was born in Delamere Forest near Frodsham in the west of Cheshire, and moved to Hyde (probably with his parents) in 1881. His father was simply named Samuel Sudlow (1838–1914), who is the first named person on the grave here, followed by his mother Fanny (c. 1840–1920).

As the sentence states above in Hyde Cemetery, 'ALSO SAMUEL S[COTT], THEIR SON, DIED IN AUSTRALIA, SEP. 17TH. 1951, AGED 86 YEARS.' Middleton says that Sudlow hadn't published much, although he prints his 'To the Blue Bell' in full and says that it will 'take a high place in local verse'. At the time that Middleton published his book Samuel Scott Sudlow was about 43 and had yet to leave Hyde for Australia, although he appears to have published nothing at all there. But he was obviously a little more successful in another field.

Samuel Scott Sudlow was a joiner by trade, although Middleton speaks more of Sudlow's artistic education and of his local fame as a portrait and landscape artist. He says '[h]is work is highly spoken of by those competent to judge, and he is one of the few local men who have been successful as a portrait painter'.

And interestingly, a little Googling tells me that 'S Scott Sudlow' was several times one of the finalists for painting prizes in Australia, including one called Self Portrait.

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