Birket-Foster, Myles - The Swing - Medici art postcard

Art Postcard
• Work of art title:  The Swing
• Artist (if known): Myles Birket-Foster (1825-1899)
• Media or other details:  watercolour
• Publisher / Gallery: Medici Society, London, c.1970s
• Postally used:  no - written but not posted
• Stamp & postmark details (if relevant): na
• Size: modern
• Notes & condition details:

NOTES:

Size: 'Modern' is usually around 6in x 4in / 'Old Standard' is usually around 5 1/2in x 3 1/2in. Larger sizes mentioned, but if you need to know the exact size please ask.

All postcards are not totally new and are pre-owned. It's inevitable that older cards may show signs of ageing and use, particularly sent through the post. Any faults other than normal ageing are noted.

Stock No.: A397

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Postage & Packing:

UK (incl. IOM, CI & BFPO): 99p

Europe: GBP 1.60

Rest of world (inc. USA etc): GBP 2.75

No additional charges for more than one postcard. You can buy as many postcards from me as you like and you will just pay the fee above once. (If buying postcards with other things such as books, please contact or wait for invoice before paying).

Payment Methods:

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Outside UK: PayPal only please (unless otherwise indicated).   NO non-UK currency checks or money orders (sorry).

NOTE: All postcards are sent in brand new stiffened envelopes which I have bought for the task. These are specially made to protect postcards and you may be able to re-use them. In addition there are other costs to sending so the above charge is not just for the stamp!

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Text from the free encyclopedia WIKIPEDIA may appear below to give a little background information:

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Myles Birket Foster (4 February 1825 � 27 March 1899) was a popular English illustrator, watercolour artist and engraver in the Victorian period. His name is also to be found as Myles Birkett Foster.

Foster was born in North Shields, England of a primarily Quaker family, but his family moved south to London in 1830, where his father founded M. B. Foster & sons - a successful beer-bottling company.^[1] He was schooled at Hitchin, Hertfordshire^[2] and on leaving initially went into his father's business. However, noticing his talent for art, his father secured an apprenticeship with the notable wood engraver, Ebenezer Landells,^[2] where he worked on illustrations for Punch magazine and the Illustrated London News.

On leaving Landells' employ, he continued to produce work for the Illustrated London News and The Illustrated London Almanack. He also found work as a book illustrator and, during the 1850s, trained himself to paint in watercolours. His illustrations of Longfellow�s ""Evangeline"" and books of poetry by other contemporaries were a great success,^[2] and he quickly became a successful artist in watercolours. Birket Foster became an Associate of the ""Old"" Watercolour Society (Later the Royal Watercolour Society) in 1860^[3] and exhibited some 400 of his paintings at the Royal Academy over more than 2 decades.

Birket Foster travelled widely, painting the countryside around Scotland, the Rhine Valley, the Swiss lakes and in Italy, especially Venice. In 1863 he moved to Witley, near Godalming in Surrey where he had a house (""The Hill"") built. Being friendly with Edward Burne-Jones and William Morris, he had the house decorated and furnished in contemporary style, with tiles and paintings by Burne-Jones and Morris' firm, Morris and Company. The same year he published a volume of �English Landscapes,� with text by Tom Taylor.^[4]

Although he had painted great numbers of landscape scenes from Scotland to the Mediterranean, it was after moving to Witley that Birket Foster produced the works for which he is best known - a sentimentalised view of the contemporary English countryside, particularly in the west Surrey area. Although criticised for their idealised view of rural life, they were recognised for their detail and execution. Birket Foster's work (along with that of other artists) was used by Cadburys, the chocolate manufacturer, on the cover of their chocolate boxes from the 1860s onwards.^[5]

He became ill in 1893 and moved to Weybridge. He continued painting, but died on 27 March 1899. His obituary in The Times referred to him as ""certainly the most popular water-colour artist of our time"".^[2] He is buried at All Saints' Church in Witley. When his father, Myles Birket Foster died, the artist son's obituary was published.

His son, Myles Birket Foster (1851�1922), was an organist who composed cantatas for children's voices and wrote a History of the Philharmonic Society, 1913.

type=printed postcards

theme=artists signed

sub-theme=art

number of items=single

period=1945 - present

postage condition=unposted