ategorised in the British Museum as a "printmaker; painter/draughtsman," Edward Frederick Brewtnall was born to a headmaster and his wife in Warrington in Lancashire on 12 October 1846, and came to London as a young man, to study at the South Kensington Schools. Hubert Herkomer recalled those days when the two were high-spirited students together, characterising the pair of them as the red-haired Saxon and the German "beau," who entertained friends with Brewtnall's doggerel verses and his own zither (140-41). Brewtnall went on to join the staff of The Graphic, where he was "associated with many whose names have since become household words," and "his talents and his chances were considered to rank higher than those of most of his comrades" (Huish 88). He did indeed become a prolific and well-regarded illustrator and watercolourist, who sometimes also painted in oils — but never quite became the important artist he might have been. As Marcus Huish put it, most of his circle felt that that he "missed by very little being a great artist," possibly because "he was too entirely fascinated and attracted by colour and composition, to the neglect of draughtsmanship, the necessity for which he was too apt to overlook" (88).
Nevertheless, as Huish concedes, he did succeed as a colourist, "notably in the hues of flesh and in sky tints" (88). Sotheby's catalogue also praises his watercolours, with their "wonderful attention to detail and to the truthful depiction of nature," seeing them as "fascinating examples of the endurance of Pre-Raphaelitism in the later nineteenth century." Another aspect of his art appealed to A.S. Baldry, who noted that he was drawn to "depict the turmoil of nature and the effective contrasts of a vehement atmospheric effect" (94). Indeed, his work was widely recognised: he exhibited it at the Royal Academy and elsewhere, and was elected an Associate of the Royal Water-Colour Society before he turned thirty, becoming a full member in 1883. He was also elected to the Royal Society of British Artists and the Royal Institute of Oil Painters.
Census results for 1891 and 1901 show that Brewtnall had married Ellen or Helen Faraday (sister-in-law of Fred Barnard) in 1884, and that the couple had three daughters, Sylvia, Lucie and Dorie. He died at the family home in Bedford Park, Turnham Green, west London, and was buried in Chiswick Churchyard, where a number of other artists, including Hogarth, were also buried (Hardie 221). His wife died quite soon afterwards, in 1903. — Jacqueline Banerjee
Works
Bibliography
Catalogue Note. Sotheby's. Web. 3 August 2026. https://www.sothebys.com/en/auctions/ecatalogue/2005/victorian-edwardian-art-l05133/lot.15.html
Baldry, A.L. "Artists' Treasures." The Studio, Vol. 18 (1899): 91-104. Google Books. Web. 3 August 2026.
Dalziels’ Bible Gallery. London: Routledge, 1881 [1880].
"Edward Frederick Brewtnall." British Museum. Web. 3 August 2026.
Free BMD. https://www.freebmd.org.uk/
Hardie, Martin. "Brewtnell, Edward Frederick." Dictionary of National Biography, 1912 (supplement): 221-22.
Huish, Marcus Bourne. British Water-colour Art in the First Year of the Reign of King Edward the Seventh and during the Century Covered by the Life of the Royal Society of Painters in Water Colours. Illustrated by the collection of drawings dedicated by that Society to Their Majesties the King and Queen at their coronation. London: Fine Art Society, A. and C. Black, 204. Internet Archive, from a copy in the collection of Robarts — University of Toronto. Web. 3 August 2026.
Created 3 August 2026