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| 1861 | Born 23 August, Nottingham |
| 1862 | Father died. Moves with mother to grandmother's home in Edgbaston, Birmingham |
| 1872 | Attends Friends' School at Ackworth. |
| 1874 | Attends Friends' School at Bootham, York (January). Instructed in watercolour by Edwin Moore. September, moves to a school at Scarborough. |
| 1878 | Leaves school, in September articled to the Birmingham architectural firm of Martin and Chamberlain. |
| 1879-80 | Attends evening art classes first at the Osier Street Board School and then at the Central School of Art, Birmingham. |
| 1882 | May. Visits Bayeux, Caen, Lisieux, Rouen and Amiens. August, leaves Martin & Chamberlain to study painting and carving. |
| 1883 | February-April. Visits Italy and develops deep admiration for the Italian Primitives; on his return makes first experiments with tempera. Attends Birmingham School of Art and meets Arthur Gaskin. |
| 1884 | Awarded a drawing prize for A Study of a Head. Southall's uncle, George Baker, shows drawings made in Italy the previous year to Ruskin. |
| 1885 | December. Summoned to Brantwood by Ruskin and commissioned to design a museum at Bewdley for the Guild of St George. |
| 1886 | Spring, second visit to Italy Pisa, Florence, Siena and Assisi. |
| 1887 | First exhibit at the RBSA |
| 1888/9 | Renounces tempera for oil. |
| 1890 | Spends three weeks in Venice and also visits Verona. Fascinated by the work of Veronese, Titian and Tintoretto. |
| 1893 | 17 February. First interview with Edward Burne-Jones. Visits Burford with Arthur Gaskin and stays the night at Kelmscott with William Morris. |
| 1894 | 8 February Second visit to Burne-Jones. |
| 1895 | First exhibit at the Royal Academy, a watercolour Cinderella (Tate Gallery). Takes up tempera again. |
| 1896 | Trip to France, visits Paris and Chartres. |
| 1897 | Receives much encouragement from Burne-Jones, who sent Southall's self-portrait, Man with a Sable Brush (Private Collection). to the New Gallery, London. Visits Pisa, Lucca, Florence, Prato, Milan and Lucerne together with Arthur Gaskin. |
| 1898 | Elected an Associate of the RBSA. |
| 1899 | First exhibit with the Arts and Crafts Exhibition Society. |
| 1901 | Participated in the exhibition of Modern Paintings in Tempera at Leighton House. November. The Society of Painters in Tempera founded. |
| 1902 | Elected full member of the Royal Birmingham Society of Artists. |
| 1903 | May. Elected a member of the Arts and Crafts Exhibition Society. 23 June, married Anna Elizabeth Baker. |
| 1904 | Southall and Anna visit Italy returning via Switzerland. Exhibited at the St. Louis International Exhibition. |
| 1905 | Southall and Anna visit Paris and Chartres. While in Paris visited Maxwell Armfield, Norman Wilkinson (of Four Oaks) and Keith Henderson in their studio. Exhibited for the first time at the New Salon (Societé Nationale des Beaux-Arts), Paris. |
| 1906 | Autumn. Southall and Anna visit Italy, joined by Charles and Margaret Gere. |
| 1907 | November. First exhibition devoted specifically to the Birmingham Group held at The Fine Art Society. |
| 1908 | Death of Anna's father |
| 1909 | May. Southall and Anna to France — Paris and Rouen. Autumn to Italy — Orta, Padua, where they met Charles and Margaret Gere, and Venice. |
| 1910 | January. Death of Southall's uncle, George Baker. March. Very successful one-man show at the Galeries Georges Petit, Paris. May. Invited to join LUnion Internationale des Beaux-Arts et des Lettres, Paris. Elected a member of the Art Workers Guild. |
| 1911 | Exhibited at the Rome International Exhibition. |
| 1913 | May. Visited Florence and San Gimignano with Anna. Exhibited at the Ghent International Exhibition. |
| 1914 | May. To Paris with Anna. Exhibited at the British Arts and Crafts Exhibition, Paris. |
| 1914-31 | Chairman of the Birmingham City Branch of the Independent Labour Party. |
| 1915-16 | Painted Corporation Street, Birmingham, in March 1914 for Birmingham Art Gallery in buon fresco. |
| 1915- | Active in politics as a Pacifist. Drew political cartoons and wrote fables about the evils of war. |
| 1916 | Major Arts and Crafts Exhibition at the RA organised by Henry Wilson as a national celebration. Southall, Henry Payne and Charles Gere painted three of the huge murals for the Hall of Heroes. |
| 1917 March. | Lectures to the Art Workers Guild on 'Craft and Media in Painting.' Also lectures at the Royal College of Art. |
| 1919 | Exhibition of the Birmingham Group at the RBSA. Lectures to the Civic Society, Birmingham on 'The Value of Colour in City Life'. One man Show at the Little Art Rooms, Adelphi, London, where he meets Lord Blanesburgh, who becomes an important patron. Visits Venice and Ravenna with Anna. |
| 1922 | March April. One Man Show at the Alpine Club Gallery, London; the largest showing of his work since 1910. July. One Man Show at Manchester. 7 November death of Southall's Mother. |
| 1923 | Visited Paris and Chartres with a cousin, Olaf Baker, who later bequeathed his collection of Southall's work to the Victoria Art Gallery, Bath. Ethelbert White spent a week studying tempera while Southall worked on Five Fishermen Pushing a Boat [Fishermen and Boat cat.no.i9]. |
| 1924 | Visited Paris, Limoges and Cahors with Anna. |
| 1925 | January. Gave a paper on 'Art in School Life' to Friends' Guild of Teachers, Saffron Walden. May. Elected Associé (à la section de Peinture) of the Societé Nationale des Beaux-Arts, Paris. Elected an Associate Member of the Royal Watercolor Society and a Member of the New English Art Club. Visited Venice, Verona and Desenzano with Anna. |
| 1927 | February. One Man Show at the Ruskin Galleries, Birmingham. To Venice with Anna. |
| 1929 | September-October. Visits Paris, Lille, Cahors, Aibi, Cordes. etc. with Anna. |
| 1930 | Exhibits in Canada. Major Winter Exhibition at the RA devoted to Italian Painting, stimulating renewed interest in tempera. Summer Exhibition at the RA, an entire room devoted to tempera painting. |
| 1931 | March-April. Second One Man Show at the Leicester Galleries. September-October. Visits the South of France with Anna. November. Elected a full member of the Royal Watercolor Society. |
| 1932 | April-May. Visits Venice with Anna. |
| 1933 | April-May. Visits Paris, Laval, La Rochelle and Angers with Anna. September October. One Man Show at the RBSA, Birmingham. Appointed Professor of Painting at the Royal Birmingham Society of Artists. October. Lectured on 'Mural Decoration at the RBSA. |
| 1934 | February-March. One-man show at Dudley. April-May. Visits Venice and Paris with Anna. Elected Vice-President of the RBSA. June. Visits Paris, Verona and Venice with Anna. |
| 1936 | May-June Visits Paris, Chartres, Cahors, Limoges, Poitiers, Amboise, etc. with Anna. |
| 1937 | April-May. Final visit to Venice with Anna. Began mural decoration in the Council House, Birmingham. August. Became very ill and underwent a major operation; never fully recovered. |
| 1939 | January. One Man Show at the Ruskin Galleries, Birmingham. Elected President of the Royal Birmingham Society of Artists, a post held until his death. |
| 1944 | Died at Birmingham, 6 November. Interred in the Friends' part of Witton Cemetery, Birmingham, 10 November. Estate left in its entirety to Anna. |
| 1945 | Memorial Exhibition at Birmingham, London (RWS) and Bournemouth. |
| 1947 | Anna died, 9 October. |
| 1948 | 23 March and 6 April. The majority of Anna's possessions sold by auction in Birmingham. Bequests of important paintings by Southall to Birmingham, Bournemouth, Nottingham and Oldham Art Galleries. |
Related Masterials
Bibliography
Breeze, George, Peyton Skipwith, and Abbie N. Sprague. Sixty Works by Joseph Southall, 1861-1944, from the Fortunoff Collection. London: The Fine Art Society, 2005. [This catalogue can be obtained from the Fine Art Society, which can be reached by telephone [020 7629 5116] and e-mail [art at faslondon.com (replace "at" by "@")].
Last modified 4 December 2005