Bridgeman Education

Name: Pears, Charles (1873-1958)
Nationality: English
Biography: English painter, born in Pontefract, Yorkshire, on 9 September 1873 and educated at East Hardwick and Pomfret College. He tended to specialize in marine scenes and was later appointed the first president of the Society of Naval Artists. He remained a lifelong admirer of Canaletto. Throughout his career he also worked as an illustrator, contributing to The Yellow Book, the Illustrated London News, Punch, The Graphic and other periodicals. As a designer of posters, his images for the London Metropolitan Railway (‘Southend’, 1915) and the Empire Marketing Board (‘The Empire Highway to India’, 1928) reached a wide audience. During the First World War, Pears was appointed an official war artist to the Admiralty in addition to holding a commission in the Royal Marines. He once again worked as a war artist during the Second World War. One such work from this period is his ‘The Jervis Bay Action’ from 1940 in the National Maritime Museum, London, distinctive for its pinpoint, crystal-clear detail. He lived in London, later moving to Saint Mawes in Cornwall, and was a member of the Royal Institute of Painters in Oil Colours. He died in Truro in January 1958 but he is commemorated in a prize at the Royal Society of Marine Artists’ annual exhibition: the Charles Pears Memorial Award. email from Robert Brindley, Archivist of the RSMA, 11.03.11

Pears, Charles (1873-1958)