Tom Mostyn Biography (1864 – 1930)

Tom Mostyn, son of Manchester artist Edwin Mostyn, was born in 1864 during his parents’ temporary stay in Liverpool. Having returned to Manchester, Mostyn was apprenticed to a firm of lithographers and went on to study at Manchester Art School and Manchester Academy of Fine Art, where he won first prize for life drawing. He is known to have lived at One Ash, Stockport.

Mostyn’s first local exhibition was in 1880. He exhibited at the Royal Academy at the age of 29 in 1891. A further 13 works were also shown at the RA and he exhibited at the Paris Salon, the Carnegie Insititute as well as galleries in Rome and Germany.

Many of his earliest works were strongly influenced by the strong anti-"Victorian Materialist" sentiment of his teacher Sir Hubert Von Herkomer (whose Bushey school he entered in 1893). In these works Mostyn depicted the poverty of the working classes in the style of the realists, as a way of raising social consciousness. Among his most important works from this period are The Torrent (R.A. 1895), The Dreamers (R.A. 1897) and The Doss-house (R.A. 1905). His earlier work also showed an influence by the Symbolists and Pre-Raphaelites, such as a Blessed Damozel based on a poem by Rossetti.

However, Mostyn also had a lighter side that followed the traditions of more traditional Victorian artists. During the early part of his career he painted a number of sumptuous Victorian garden scenes that featured homes with formal gardens or thatched cottages surrounded by lush and colourful flowers. He is remembered for his atmospheric landscapes and romantic garden scenes, such as Sunlight or Burnham Beeches (Laing Gallery). However his style was so eclectic throughout his career that it is hard to believe that the same artist created all of his paintings. Described as a master colourist, his work was bold and vigorous. Other principal works include Childhood, The Garden of Peace, In the Heart of the Cheviots and Forest Lovers.

In 1891 he was made associate member of Manchester Academy of Fine Art and founded the New Art School, also known as The Studio, at 76 High Lane, Chorlton-Cum-Hardy. The building has served various purposes over the years but remained intact, complete with skylit studio. It has been saved from demolition or redevelopment by its forthcoming conversion into a Buddhist meditation centre.

1896 he was elected a full member of the Manchester Academy of Fine Art and in 1895 a member of Royal Institute of Oil Painters (ROI).

1896 he became the President of the Graphic Club at the Manchester Athenaeum and later in life a member of The Royal Cambrian Academy, and the Royal West of England Academy.

In the late 1890's Mostyn also experimented with religious images, for which he received recognition as "one of the few modern painters who can paint a religious picture with absolute sincerity" (Daily Mail, June 27, 1907). Although he readily changed styles, Mostyn was always praised.

His 1897 his painting ‘Christ in the Garden of Gethsemane’ was exhibited by art dealers Agnews at Manchester City Art Gallery and attracted over 40,000 visitors. It toured other galleries for a further 8 years. As late as 1907 it was seen by 20,400 people in just four weeks at the Oldham Art Gallery. Also in 1907 his ‘Christ in the Wilderness’ was exhibited by Agnews at the Lesser Free Trade Hall in Manchester.

In 1904 Mostyn moved to St John’s Wood, London. At his farewell dinner at the Grand Hotel, Aytoun Street, the Lord Mayor of Manchester gave a presiding speech: ‘no one attacks his canvas the way Tom Mostyn does’. By way of reply Mostyn’s speech noted that: ‘Art is not a luxury, but an absolute necessity.’ In London art circles he became known as ‘the Manchester painter’.

The most important transition in Mostyn’s work took place between 1911 and 1912. The works from this period feature figures, which are so predominant in his earlier works, in lavish garden settings - blending the two subjects he was currently exploring. His 1914 Garden of Enchantment was created as a stage set for a production of Parsifal – and is still available today as a desktop download! He was elected President of Manchester Academy of Fine Art from 1917 to 1920 where an unattributed quotation describes him as being "a dominating energetic person" who “introduced spirit of reform”, opening up membership to amateurs as well as professionals.

After WWI, Mostyn moved to Torbay, Devon, where he was associated with the Newlyn School of Art. Here he concentrated on a series of enchanted garden scenes for which he would become best known and also later impressionistic work. Leaving realism behind, Mostyn began to paint dream-like landscapes, idealizing nature by working with, and building upon, his knowledge of nature's strength and beauty. By piling thick layers of intensely bright coloured pigment onto the canvas with a palette knife, he overwhelmed the viewer with a barrage of visual stimuli in an effort to evoke their imagination. Mostyn was not content to soften down facts and realities by veiling them in an atmosphere of subtle illusion, like so many of the Impressionists. Reality became of small importance to the artist's scheme. Instead he set out to create a world of his own, in which romance was the dominant note. Because of Mostyn's use of colour as form, these works caused some controversy, and were criticized by some to be little more than "orgies in paint".

Mostyn did not confine himself to paint with any set formula nor did he limit his choice of subject matter to any popular mannerism. On the contrary, he felt that every moment called for its individual way of being seen and therefore its unique way of being painted. Even with his eyesight failing, his work remained full of energy and vitality.

Until his death in 1930, Mostyn's own convictions guided him in a struggle for expression, which became the main influence in his work. It caused his style to undergo the many changes that we can observe in the body of his work today.

Mostyn remains a painter of note and his work is still sold on the international art market, for example, at Rehs Galleries, New York. He still figures in public gallery permanent collections in Manchester, Oldham, Newcastle, Cardiff, Liverpool, Bradford, Birkenhead and Rochdale. He also features in important private collections and the Yale Center for British Art and is popular among American collectors.

Postscript

Kind thanks are due to the following people in helping to research this short biography:

1. Sheila Dewsbury, Manchester Academy of Fine Art, and author of 'The Story so Far: The Manchester Academy of Fine Art from 1859 to 2003'
2. Jeremy Parrett, Special Collections Archivist, Sir Kenneth Green Library, Manchester Metropolitan University
3. Violet Cairns, Senior Assistant Librarian (Art & Design), Sir Kenneth Green Library, Manchester Metropolitan University.

Additional information has been drawn from various internet sources.

© Vairochana Buddhist Centre 2007