# T. G. Purvis

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{{short description|English painter}}

{{Use dmy dates|date=April 2022}}
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thumb|T G Purvis, ca. 1895

'''T G Purvis''' (12 April 1861 – 17 January 1933) was a British [marine artist](/source/Marine_Art). 
A [sea captain](/source/sea_captain) who turned to painting, he was a prolific painter of ship portraits and marine scenes from the early 1890s to the late 1920s.
His paintings can be found in a number of public
collections, notably the [National Maritime Museum](/source/National_Maritime_Museum) and the
[National Museum of Wales](/source/National_Museum_of_Wales).<ref name="collections">{{Cite book |last=Wright |first=Christopher |url=https://books.google.com/books/?id=9XNe0mLSJQAC |title=British and Irish Paintings in Public Collections: An Index of British and Irish Oil Paintings by Artists Born Before 1870 in Public and Institutional Collections in the United Kingdom and Ireland |last2=Gordon |first2=Catherine May |date=2006-01-01 |publisher=Yale University Press |isbn=978-0-300-11730-1 |language=en}}</ref><ref name="bbc">BBC "Your Paintings", [https://archive.today/20130419230137/http://www.bbc.co.uk/arts/yourpaintings/artists/thomas-g-purvis-2360/paintings/slideshow%23/8]</ref>

thumb|The ''Wandsbek'', oil by T G Purvis, ca. 1900

==Life==
Thomas George Purvis (professionally known as T G Purvis) was born in [Chirton, Northumberland](/source/Chirton%2C_Northumberland),
on 12 April 1861.<ref name="bmd">GRO birth, marriage or death certificate</ref>
He was the only child of the then 46-year-old<ref name="opr">Parish register</ref>
Jane Scott, daughter of a master mariner,<ref name="bmd"/> and her husband,
Thomas Joseph Purvis (1821–86), a blockmaker born in [Alnwick](/source/Alnwick).<ref name="opr"/>

Purvis went to sea as an apprentice in December 1878, working his way up
to obtain his [Master](/source/Master_mariner)'s certificate in August 1887.<ref name="nmm">National Maritime Museum records</ref>
He sailed on a variety of steam and sailing vessels; the latter
including two and a half years on the [bark](/source/barque) ''Arabella'' and a voyage to
Australia in the Dundee-built [clipper](/source/clipper), ''La Escocesa''.<ref name="nmm"/>
In 1886, he married Grace Elizabeth Dodgin (1861-1948), eldest daughter
of shipbuilder and marine engineer Charles William Dodgin (1839-1917).<ref name="bmd"/><ref name="census">{{cite web| url = http://www.ancestry.co.uk| title = Ancestry® {{!}} Genealogy, Family Trees & Family History Records}}</ref>

thumb|Watercolour by T G Purvis, 1902
As a ship's captain, T G could only find employment delivering
new small steamships to South America,<ref name="nmm"/><ref name="mlist">Mariners List ship index, http://www.mariners-l.co.uk/IBON-INDEX.html</ref> and he gave this up in July
1891<ref name="nmm"/> to become a full-time painter; he had already described himself
as "marine artist" in the census earlier that year.<ref name="census"/>

From this time until the beginning of the First World War he was a prolific painter, mainly of ship portraits, though probably his best paintings are those where he was not constrained by the conventions of ship portraiture.<ref name="collections"/><ref name="bbc"/><ref name="fae">The Fine Art Emporium, http://www.fineartemporium.com/se-Purvis-TG.htm</ref>

By 1888, when his oldest son [Tom Purvis](/source/Tom_Purvis) was born, he was living in [Bristol](/source/Bristol).<ref name="freebmd">{{cite web| url = http://www.freebmd.org.uk| title = FreeBMD Home Page}}</ref> He moved in early 1894 to [Cardiff](/source/Cardiff),<ref name="freebmd"/> where he for a time also ran a
photographic studio, and was still there in 1902.<ref name="photo">Glamorgan photographers, http://www.genuki.org.uk/big/wal/GLA/Photographers.html</ref>
Soon after, he moved to [Blackheath, London](/source/Blackheath%2C_London). He was in Blackheath when his son Tom started at Camberwell School of Art in ca. 1904.
By the outbreak of the First World War, the great sailing ships Purvis
loved to paint were in decline.
In 1915 he moved to the Far East, leaving his family behind,<ref>His son Tom seems to have believed he had drowned (Purvis Archive, National Railway Museum, York)</ref> and
took employment as mate or master of various steamships, at least
until 1925.<ref name="nmm"/>
Meanwhile, he continued to paint.<ref>Numerous paintings of Far East subjects, including ones dated as late as 1926</ref> Purvis died in [Hong Kong](/source/Hong_Kong) on 17 January 1933, after an accident.<ref>`Fatal fall down hotel staircase', ''China Mail'', 17 January 1933; 'Captain of Old Clipper Days: Death of Captain Purvis in Kowloon', ''North China Herald'', 8 February 1933.</ref>

==Family==
His five children all showed artistic talent in varying degrees,<ref>In the 1911 census, 4 of the 5 siblings are described as artist or art student</ref>
especially his oldest son, [Tom Purvis](/source/Tom_Purvis) (1888-1959), who became one of
the most distinguished and distinctive of 20th century poster artists.

== References ==
{{Reflist}}

== External links ==
{{commons category|Thomas G. Purvis|T G Purvis}}
''Selections of his paintings can be found on:''<br />
The BBC's "Your Paintings" [https://artuk.org/search/search/search/keyword:thomas-g-purvis]

''and on various art selling sites, including:''<br />
The Fine Art Emporium [http://www.fineartemporium.com/se-Purvis-TG.htm]<br />
Bonhams [http://www.bonhams.com/]<br />
Christies [http://www.christies.com/]

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Purvis, T G}}
<!--- Categories --->
Category:English marine artists
Category:1861 births
Category:1933 deaths
Category:19th-century English painters
Category:English male painters
Category:20th-century English painters
Category:People from North Shields
Category:20th-century English male artists
Category:19th-century English male artists

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Adapted from the Wikipedia article [T. G. Purvis](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/T._G._Purvis) by Wikipedia contributors ([contributor history](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/T._G._Purvis?action=history)). Available under [Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/). Changes may have been made.