Gresley family: Forever grateful to Alabaster Bill for inspiring interest in art history and antiques

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It probably confuses art galleries but it amazes the rest of us that four members of one Derby family, covering three generations have all acquired reputations as fine artists. The Gresleys – James Stephen, Frank, Cuthbert and Harold – have been well-known for their superb watercolours and landscapes for many years, and their pictures hang on many a living room wall in Derbyshire. Pat Parkin reports.

DERBYSHIRE has bred a number of outstanding artists but few to compare with the prolific four, the Gresleys, whose work spanned a period of two centuries and three generations of one family.

Since the mid-1800s when James Stephen first began dabbling with a paint brush, grandfather, father and two grandsons have turned out countless paintings, capturing on canvas, mainly in watercolours, some of Derbyshire’s favourite beauty spots, as well as scenes from further afield.

Their work now hangs in galleries, art shops and on the walls of numerous homes not only in the UK but around the world. It has become so appreciated by art lovers that their paintings are now collector’s items – so much so that they have achieved what is said to be 21st-century fame by being offered for auction on e-Bay for more than four-figure sums.

The Gresley line began with James Stephen (1829-1908), who must have been delighted when his son, Frank, decided to follow him into the art world.

The dynasty was established when grandsons Cuthbert and Harold became respectively a water colourist and china painter, and a watercolour landscapist.

Derbyshire art critic John Fineran remembers the first time he saw a Gresley painting when he was 11 years old and an elderly spinster neighbour invited him to “come up and see her Gresley”. (It was not an etching!)

He recalls he thought it “a stonking painting” and was very impressed.”

Since then John has studied the work of Stephen, Frank, Cuthbert and Harold with great interest and mentioned them in his books, as well as writing a booklet about them.

Gresley senior was born in Sandiacre, later moving to Derby before spending the last years of his life near Bolton Abbey in Yorkshire. He was a member of a number of artistic groups, including the Royal Institute of Painters in Watercolours and the Royal Society of British Artists.

His son, Frank, was born in Chellaston in 1855 and spent all his life there, becoming known as “the grand old man” of the village. He painted numerous landscapes, mostly in water colours, and of particular note among his works are his paintings around the Trent Valley, including Swarkestone, Barrow and Ingleby.

Such was his local reputation that he was a member of the Derby Corporation Art Gallery Hanging Committee which meant he was regarded in local art circles as an excellent judge of paintings by good amateur and semi-professional artists.

He was married to the daughter of George Fearn, the first landlord of the well-known old Derby pub, the Corporation Hotel.

Like his father before him, he too would have been delighted that two of their three sons had taken up painting – Cuthbert was a china painter with Derby Crown China and a water colourist, and Harold an outstanding water colour landscape artist.

Harold was almost certainly the most talented of the four.

He studied at Derby School of Art but then the First World War interrupted his studies and he enlisted in the Sherwood Foresters, winning a Distinguished Conduct Medal in 1917.

On demobilisation he went to study in Nottingham under landscape artist Arthur Spooner and began teaching at Repton in 1924, where he stayed for many years. He had a studio in Iron Gate and exhibited widely. His work was hung in numerous London galleries including the Royal Academy.

Though renowned mainly as a landscape artist, he also became an accomplished painter of portraits in oils and, in 1945, was said to have succeeded the late Ernest Townsend as a leading portraitist.

His older brother, Cuthbert, joined Royal Crown Derby in 1893 and trained under J P Wale in the decorating and painting department. Flowers were his speciality and he was noted for his roses but he also became well-known for being able to paint anything which was required.

Cuthbert's name also lives on in Chellaston for his establishment and running of the Traveller's Joy cafe, a popular venue in the area for many years.

It eventually became the Golden Pheasant Restaurant.

He ran the business with Sybil Francis who was the showroom assistant in the 1930s at Crown Derby, where Cuthbert was a designer- decorator.

Sybil became the manageress and after Cuthbert retired from the china factory, he spent his retirement growing fresh vegetables in the gardens of the cafe which was a popular dining-out venue for the well-heeled of Derby.

Cuthbert died, aged 87, in 1963 and Harold was the last of the Gresley dynasty to pass on in 1967, when he was 75.

Work by all the family has been displayed in Derby and, in 2001, Derby Art Gallery held a major exhibition of their works.

But it is on the sitting room walls of houses all over Derbyshire where most of the Gresley pictures can be viewed.

They are appreciated because of their beauty and artistry but also because the Gresleys managed to capture on canvas some of the county’s favourite beauty spots at a time when the rural scene was steadily changing.

Do you have any stories about the renowned Gresley artists? If so, click on the discussion link at the top of the page.

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