Arthur Ambrose McEvoyARA (12 August 1877 – 4 January 1927) was an English artist. His early works arelandscapes and interiors with figures, in a style influenced byJames McNeill Whistler. Later he gained success as aportrait painter, mainly of women and often in watercolour.
McEvoy was born and baptised inCrudwell,Wiltshire, in 1877, the son of Charles Ambrose McEvoy, a Scottish engineer, and his wife Mary Jane, although his parents’ address was given as 3 Carlisle Street,Soho Square, London.[1] His younger brotherCharles became a playwright. Encouraged by Whistler, who spotted his talent early on, McEvoy enrolled at theSlade School of Fine Art inLondon when he was fifteen. At the Slade he was part of the group aroundAugustus John andWilliam Orpen. McEvoy had the reputation for a fine technical skill in oils, learnt from study with Whistler. He later worked withWalter Sickert inDieppe. While at the Slade he was fellow pupil ofGwen John, with whom he had an unhappy affair.
From 1900 he exhibited at theNew English Art Club (NEAC), and became a member in 1902. In the same year he married the painterMary Edwards (1870–1941). In 1907 he held a one-person exhibition at the Carfax Gallery. In 1911 he was a founder-member of the National Portrait Society, and in 1913 he became a member of the International Society. The works that he exhibited at the NEAC were landscapes and interiors. He worked as the Slade Assistant during the early years of the war. It was at this time that McEvoy established a reputation as a portrait painter of fashionable society beauties, often painted in watercolour in a rapid, sketchy style.
During theFirst World War, McEvoy was attached to the Royal Naval Division from 1916 to 1918 and "painted a number of distinguished sailors and soldiers, now in the Imperial War Museum",[2] and the National Maritime Museum.
McEvoy visited New York and exhibited there at the Duveen Galleries in 1920. In 1924 he was made anAssociate of the Royal Academy and of the Royal Society of Portrait Painters, and of theRoyal Watercolour Society in 1926. He also exhibited at theGrosvenor,Grafton andLeicester Galleries.
McEvoy died in Pimlico, London, on 4 January 1927. In 1928 he was represented in the Royal Academy Late Members Exhibition. In 1933 he was memorialised together with Orpen andCharles Ricketts in an exhibition in Manchester.
A major retrospective exhibition was held at thePhilip Mould Gallery on Pall Mall from November to January 2019.[3] It included newly rediscovered works.[3]
