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ANDERSON, Sir Alfred Charles Stanley, RA, RE. |
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Born in Bristol in 1884, he was the son of Alfred Anderson, an engraver, and an Artist. An Artist Member who was associated with the Tribe at the commencement of a very successful career. He then studied at the Municipal School of Art and in 1907 he was elected an Artist Member and probably received advice and guidance from those Founder Members. Educated at the Merchant Venturers Technical College, Unity Street, he left at 15 and became apprenticed to his father's business as an heraldic engraver. He was thus unable to take up painting until his term was completed. In 1909 he won a British Institution Engraving Scholarship. This necessitated his moving to London and there is no record of any activity in the Wigwam beyond that date. From a caricature by R. E. J. Bush in the Tribe's collection, he is shown as a clean-shaven serious looking young man with a thick crop of dark hair (Nos. 10/95 and 343). The Tribe has five of his framed pictures and two Evening Sketches executed during his short sojourn. Continuing his studies, from 1909 to 1911 he attended the Royal Academy College of Art and also Goldsmith's College School of Art. He also spent much of his spare time inspecting the works in the National Gallery and the British Museum, and always maintained that he learnt much of his painting skill in those places. As he himself puts it "but most beneficially in the National Gallery and the British Museum and my own workshop, as I hated crowds and 'art houses'". In 1910 he was elected an Associate Member and in 1923 a Full Member of the Royal Society of Painter Etchers and Engravers (R.E.). In 1934 he was elected an Associate and in 1941 a Full Member of the Royal Academy. His fame was now becoming widespread and he won many medals and awards as he exhibited all over Europe, where he was well known, for, in 1930 he became a member of the Engraving Faculty of the British School at Rome. In addition to Europe he also exhibited with considerable success in the United States, Canada and Australia. In 1938 he was the only British entry in the Venice Biennial Exhibition in the Line Engraving and Dry Point Section. 1951 saw the crowning point of his career for he was created C.B.E. The following year he gave up his appointment in Rome and returned to England and took up residence at "The Timbers", Towersey, near Thame, in Oxfordshire. On March 4th, 1966, he died, aged eighty-two. A further indication of the fame he achieved can be judged from the "Who's Who in Art". Under the heading of "Official Purchases" it reads "all the Principal Galleries in Great Britain, USA. Canada, Australia and Europe". It is very pleasing to realise that he was with the Tribe for those two years when he first started on that illustrious career and maintained his membership until 1918. (Cecil Broome)
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