Artist Information
Artist
Major Godfrey Douglas Giles (1857-1941)Role
PainterArtist
Goupil & Co.Role
PrintmakerArtist
I. P. Mendoza, Printseller and Publisher to the QueenRole
PublisherDate made
Apr 1, 1890Time Period
19th CenturyNotes
ARTIST BIOGRAPHY
Born in Karachi, India, Godfrey Douglas Giles was the son of a Royal Navy captain. He was a successful illustrator, war correspondent and painter of horses, military scenes and battles, many experienced firsthand while on service with the British Army in India, Afghanistan, Egypt and South Africa. He also produced animal paintings and sporting scenes after retirement from the military.
Giles was sent to the Royal Military College, Sandhurst, to launch his career, and his first posting was in India in 1875. He saw action in the Second Afghan War in the late 1870s, and accompanied the Gordon Relief Expedition to Sudan, commanding Turkish cavalry at El Teb. Having attained the rank of Major, Giles retired from the army in 1884 and went to Paris where he studied under French painter Carolus-Duran (1837-1917). He successfully exhibited paintings at the Paris Salon and the Royal Academy, after which he settled in Newmarket where he depicted horses and horse-racing scenes. He produced numerous caricatures for the magazine "Vanity Fair", and his illustrations also appeared in the weekly "Black & White Budget". After the outbreak of the Boer War in South Africa in 1899, Giles was sent there as war correspondent and artist by "The Graphic" and "The Daily Graphic". Giles made significant contributions to the pictorial record of the Boer War. He was awarded the Queen's South Africa Medal in 1903. Giles died at the age of 83 in Edinburgh.
PRINTMAKER
Goupil & Cie was a leading art dealer and engraving firm in 19th century France, with headquarters in Paris. Goupil established a worldwide trade in fine art reproductions of paintings and sculptures, with a network of branches in London, Brussels, The Hague, Berlin and Vienna, as well as in New York and Australia.
