Reginald Eves

{{short description|British artist (1876–1941)}} {{Use British English|date= August 2021}} {{Use dmy dates|date= August 2021}} {{Infobox artist | name = Reginald Eves | honorific_suffix = {{postnominals|country=GBR|size=100%|RA}} | image = Reginald Eves in 1939.jpg | image_size = | alt = | caption = Eves in 1939 | birth_name = Reginald Grenville Eves | birth_date = {{Birth date|df=y|1876|5|24}} | birth_place = London, England | death_date = {{Death date and age|df=y|1941|6|13|1876|5|24}} | death_place = Middleton-in-Teesdale, County Durham, England<ref name="TimesObit">{{cite news|title=Obituaries|url=http://find.galegroup.com/ttda/infomark.do?&source=gale&prodId=TTDA&userGroupName=oxford&tabID=T003&docPage=article&searchType=BasicSearchForm&docId=CS103364816&type=multipage&contentSet=LTO&version=1.0|access-date=24 May 2013|newspaper=The Times|date=16 June 1941|page=6}}</ref> | spouse = Bertha Sybil Papillon (m.1903)<ref name="TimesObit"/> | field = painting | training = Slade School of Fine Art | movement = | works = | patrons = | influenced by = | influenced = | awards = | elected = Royal Academy (elected 1939)<br/>Royal Society of Portrait Painters<br/>Royal Institute of Oil Painters | bgcolour = }}

'''Reginald Grenville Eves''' {{Post-nominals|country=GBR|RA}} (24 May 1876 – 13 June 1941) was a British painter who made portraits of many prominent military, political and cultural figures between the two world wars.<ref name="BritPort">{{cite book|author=Brian Stewart & Mervyn Cutten|publisher=Antique Collectors' Club|year=1997|title=The Dictionary of Portrait Painters in Britain up to 1920|isbn=1-85149-173-2}}</ref>

==Biography== Eves was born in 1876, the son of William Henry Eves, a London JP.<ref name="TimesObit"/> He was educated at University College School and later at the Slade School of Fine Art, between 1891 and 1895, where he studied under Alphonse Legros, Frederick Brown and Henry Tonks.<ref name="TimesObit"/> After the Slade, he lived and worked in Yorkshire for five years, before returning to London.<ref name="Spalding">{{cite book|author=Frances Spalding|author-link=Frances Spalding|publisher=Antique Collectors' Club|year=1990|title=20th Century Painters and Sculptors |isbn=1-85149-106-6}}</ref> In 1901 he had his first work shown at the Royal Academy.<ref name="Spalding"/> Eves exhibited in Paris several times and won a silver medal in 1924 and a gold medal in 1926 at the Paris Salon.<ref name="BritPort"/> He was elected as an Associate of the Royal Academy in 1933 and a Royal Academician in 1939.<ref name="RArgeve">{{cite web |author=Royal Academy|url=http://www.racollection.org.uk/ixbin/indexplus?_IXACTION_=file&_IXFILE_=templates/full/person.html&_IXTRAIL_=Academicians&person=5649 |title=Reginald Grenville Eves, RA|access-date=25 September 2016|work=Royal Academy of Arts}}</ref> Eves established a successful society portrait practice in London and his subjects included Thomas Hardy, Sir Ernest Shackleton, George VI and Sir Max Beerbohm.<ref name="BritPort"/><ref name=TateEves>{{cite web |url=http://www.tate.org.uk/art/artists/reginald-g-eves-1074|title=Artist biography, Reginald G. Eves|access-date=26 September 2016|work=Tate}}</ref>

[[File:The British Army in France 1940 F4134.jpg|thumb|left|Lieutenant General Alan Brooke being painted by Eves, 30 April 1940.]] When the Second World War broke out, Eves was among the first artists offered a full-time, salaried contract by the War Artists' Advisory Committee, WAAC, and along with Barnett Freedman, Edward Ardizzone and Edward Bawden, was sent to France in 1940 with the British Expeditionary Force, BEF. There, Eves mainly painted portraits while based at a hotel in Arras. After he returned to Britain in April 1940, Eves salaried contract was allowed to lapse, as it was difficult for high-ranking officers to make time for lengthy portrait settings; he was to paint Gort and all the (BEF) corps commanders. Lieutenant General Alan Brooke sat for him on 23 and 29 April and 27 October but his portrait was not completed. He said that Eves ''should be good as he charges £1500 for a picture in private life''.<ref>{{cite book|last = Alanbrooke|first = Field Marshal Lord|editor1-first=Alex|editor1-last=Danchev|editor2-first=Daniel|editor2-last=Todman|title = War Diaries 1939–1945|publisher = Phoenix Press|year = 2001|isbn = 1-84212-526-5}}</ref> However he continued to undertake individual commissions for WAAC.<ref name=IWMeves>{{cite web |author=Imperial War Museum|url=http://www.iwm.org.uk/collections/item/object/1050000833|title=War artists archive, Reginald Eves |access-date=26 September 2016|work=Imperial War Museum}}</ref><ref name="Foss">{{cite book|author=Brain Foss|publisher=Yale University Press|year=2007|title=War Paint: Art, War, State and Identity in Britain, 1939-1945 |isbn=978-0-300-10890-3}}</ref>

Eves died on 13 June 1941.<ref name=TateEves/> His works form part of the collections of both the Tate and the National Portrait Gallery.<ref>{{cite web|title=Reginald Grenville Eves|url=http://www.npg.org.uk/collections/search/person/mp01513/reginald-grenville-eves?role=art|publisher=National Portrait Gallery|access-date=24 May 2013}}</ref>

== References == {{Reflist}}

== External links == {{Commons category|Reginald Grenville Eves}} *{{Art UK bio}} * [http://www.npg.org.uk/collections/search/person/mp01513/reginald-grenville-eves?role=art Portraits by, and of, Reginald Grenville Eves held by the National Portrait Gallery, London] * [http://www.iwm.org.uk/collections/search?query=Reginald%20Grenville%20Eves Works in the Imperial War Museum collection]

{{DEFAULTSORT:Eves, Reginald Grenville}} Category:1876 births Category:1941 deaths Category:19th-century English painters Category:20th-century English painters Category:Alumni of the Slade School of Fine Art Category:Artists from London Category:English male painters Category:People educated at University College School Category:Royal Academicians Category:World War II artists Category:20th-century British war artists Category:20th-century English male artists Category:19th-century English male artists