Sometimes chance decides our future. When he was fourteen, Alfred Quinton received a school prize for hard work. It was a book entitled Drawing from Nature by George Barnard. It decided him that this was what he wanted to do.
Quinton's Early Life
Alfred Robert Quinton was born in Peckham, London in 1853, the youngest of seven children. His parents had moved to London from Suffolk and his father, John, worked as an editor for the Religious Tract Society, producing various publications including the Boys Own and Girls Own papers. Something of his parents' non-conformist ethic stayed with Alfred.
On leaving school he studied art before working as a sheet engraver, but the lure of landscape painting stayed with him and he started to work in oils, frequently exhibiting his work in London galleries. Occasionally he sold a canvas for as much as twenty guineas. In 1874 he made what proved to be an important decision and began to work in water colour.
Alfred was fortunate to travel widely in Britain and Europe, looking for subjects to paint, Returning by ship from Spain he met Elizabeth Annie Crompton, descendant of the industrialist Samuel Crompton. They fell in love and were married at Bolton in 1885. They settled in Finchley, north London.
Quinton's Career as an Artist
Alfred had a studio in the city, first at Fleet Street and then at Lincoln's Inn. As his work became more profitable he was able to buy a house with sufficient room to have a studio at home. He settled into the pattern of travelling for up to three months of the year, mainly during the summer, then spending the winter months transferring what he had seen into painting. When travelling he relied on sketches and also photographs that he took himself. Commissions began to come Alfred's way.
Book Illustrations
In 1895 Alfred set out with a friend to cycle from Land's End to John O'Groats. He wrote of his experiences, illustrating the work with his own drawings. It was serialised in the Illustrated Sporting and Dramatic News.
He was commissioned to provide illustrations for other publications, including a book by P H Ditchfield: The Cottage and Village Life of Rural England for which he provided 71 pictures He also provided pictures for another of Ditchfield's books: The City Companies of London and their Good Works. Perhaps most significant was the work The Historic Thames for which the text was written by Hilaire Belloc. Quinton exhibitied his original paintings for the Thames book and two of his works were bought by the Duke and Duchess of Kent.
Picture Postcards
At about this time the postcard publisher Raphael Tuck began to produce images from Quinton's watercolours and a series called Village Crosses was distributed. However, another producer of post cards had Quinton in their sights.
Joseph R. Salmon of Sevenoaks in Kent, was already producing a series of post cards, some black and white, some reproductions of works of art. Tentatively he employed local artists to produce pictures of their neighbourhoods but it was when he was in Selfridges Department Store in London that he noticed the work of Alfred Quinton. Struck by its romantic, peaceful quality he approached Quinton with the suggestion that he might be prepared to travel specifically to record picturesque places in Britain. This became a productive partnership. Alfred worked mainly in England and Wales right through the First World War although his venues had to be carefully selected, so as not to fall foul of the country's security restrictions.
Inevitably, with age, Alfred's output tailed off but he produced in the region of 2,000 views for Salmon's.
Alfred was a modest man, devoted to his family and the church, enjoying homely pursuits like gardening and carpentry. He had two sons but sadly the younger, Edgar, died young. Alfred died in 1934 leaving a huge volume of work to posterity.
Source: The Rural England of A R Quinton Published by Salmon Studio 1978
