Collection of paintings by renowned Birmingham artist to be sold in Shropshire

A collection of 34 oil and watercolor paintings by William John Wainwright is expected to fetch around £8,000 when sold by Halls Fine Art in Shrewsbury.

The paintings, valued at between £200 and £1,000 each, will be sold at the company’s auctions in June and October. They were sent by the executors of the estate of a Midlands art collector.

Abigail Molenaar, paintings and prints specialist at Halls Fine Art, said: “This collection is quite special as it showcases the full range of Wainwright’s talents. I like his figurative paintings the most.

“Wainwright’s paintings evoke a romanticized past full of knights errant, courtly love and the age of chivalry. There is an element of escapism in his work that I find appealing.

“The Birmingham dealer has lovingly built the collection over many years, buying paintings from all over the UK and bringing them back to the artist’s home town to form a collection that fully represents the artist’s work.”

The collection is notable for its diversity, featuring watercolours, oil paintings and portraits of notable Midlands figures such as ‘The Showman’ Pat Collins, MP (1859-1943).

Three paintings included in the fine art, antiques and jewelery auction on 12 June are ‘Lady Arranging Flowers’, worth up to £300, ‘The Beadsman’, which was exhibited at The Royal Birmingham Society, worth up to £400 and ‘ A Troubadour’ valued at up to £400.

Wainwright (1855-1931) was born in Birmingham and educated at Sedgley Park College, near Wolverhampton, before being apprenticed as a stained glass designer to John Hardman & Co aged 14.

The company nurtured his artistic potential and in 1880 supported him to study painting in Antwerp under Verlat, before moving to Paris in 1881 for three years.

Returning to Britain, Wainwright lived in London for a time while searching for new painting grounds. Encouraged by fellow artists Walter Langley, Edwin Harris and Charles Napier Hemy, he settled on Newlyn.

Although he enjoyed living and working in Newlyn, the glare of the sunlight affected his vision, causing him to lose the sight in one eye. He abandoned plein air painting and the Newlyn School style to concentrate on figure painting in his studio.

In 1886 he returned to live in Birmingham where, four years later, he married Bertha Mary Powell, with whom he had eight children. He was a founding member of the Birmingham Art Circle.

The first two opportunities to view and bid on Wainwright paintings will be at the Halls Fine Art Auctions on June 12 and 26.