Artist Information
Artist
George Henry Chick Lingford (1855-1932)Attribution
Attributed toRole
PainterDate made
circa 1920Time Period
20th CenturyNotes
ARTIST BIOGRAPHY
Born in Worcestershire, George Henry Chick Lingford was a British-Canadian artist recognized for his accomplished scenic watercolour paintings. He attended Dame's School in Bristol, where he studied art in the 1860s. He lived and worked in Bristol, Liverpool and London, as a successful working artist, and at other times supplementing his income as a “provision broker”. He was also actively involved in the founding of The Bristol Savages, a group of artists whose history dates to the late Victorian era. The group expanded to include well-known local artists, art teachers and ambitious younger artists and in 1904 became a formally-constituted society holding regular meetings and annual exhibitions until very recent years. Lingford’s brother-in-law, Ernest Ehlers RWA, (1858-1943) born in Newfoundland and also a landscape artist, is credited with its founding and was the society’s first president.
Lingford traveled in both England and Scotland, and he ultimately moved to B.C. for unknown reasons in perhaps about 1905. He settled in Salmon Arm where he continued his painting with a focus on mountain and forest landscapes in watercolour. By 1925, he appears to have returned to Bristol where he fell on hard financial times and reportedly suffered from ill health. He later died and was buried in Salmon Arm.
Of note, in addition to The Bristol Savages connection, his family has a long history of involvement in the arts with his grandfather, father and uncle all working as landscape artists. His son, Rex (1881-1965), had a photographic studio in Salmon Arm and his great-grandson, Chris Cran RCA, is an award-winning visual artist based in Calgary, Alberta who is best known for his tongue-in-cheek, trompe l’oeil compositions.