Bertram Priestman (1868-1951)

Bertram Priestman (1868-1951) was born into a wealthy Bradford manufacturing family. In his youth, he was much influenced by his older half brother Arnold Priestman, who had been a pupil of Henry La Thangue. After a tour of Italy in 1886, Priestman attended Bradford Technical College followed, in 1888, by the Slade School of Art in London. He began exhibiting at the Royal Academy in 1889 and at the New English Art Club from 1894. In his paintings of landscapes and coastal scenes Priestman combined the English landscape tradition with techniques influenced by the French Impressionists such as a vigorous handling of paint and use of a bright luminous palette.