Edward Arthur Fellowes Prynne was born in 1854 and died in 1921. He was a leading British late Pre-Raphaelite painter of portraits and subject pictures, who in later life became one of the country’s best-known creators of decorative art for churches.
Family and Early Life
Born in Plymouth on 14 October 1854, Prynne was the third son of Emily Fellowes (daughter of Admiral Sir Thomas Fellowes KCB DCL) and the Cornish Revd George Rundle Prynne, the notable tractarian and ritualist. His brother was the church architect George Fellowes Prynne.
Prynne was educated at Eastman’s Royal Naval Academy in Southsea, being originally intended for the Navy. But at the suggestion of Frederic Leighton, he decided to embark on an artistic career. After preliminary training in art schools in London, he traveled to Antwerp, where he studied with the Belgian painter Charles Verlat. He then went on to study in Florence, Paris, and Rome.
Prynne married Emma Mary Joll in 1888, with whom he had two sons and three daughters: Beatrice Mary Fellowes Prynne (1893–1993), Dorothy Etheldreda Prynne (1894–1983), George Michael Fellowes Prynne (1896–1973), Stella Christine Marie Prynne (1898–1957), and John Rundle Fellowes Prynne (1903–1931).
Was Edward Arthur Fellowes Prynne a Painter?
Prynne excelled across a wide range of styles and subjects. He was a brilliant traditional portrait artist. His work was sought by the royal family and the politicians. He painted over 60 portraits and was commissioned to paint a life-size portrait of the Duke of Edinburgh as Admiral of the Fleet. On command from Queen Victoria, he presented it at Osborne House, and that portrait hung at the Royal Naval Barracks, Devonport. He also often created almost psychedelic pictures of mythological and religious pictures. The list includes ‘Cophetua’s Queen,’ ‘Orpheus and Eurydice,’ ‘Pan and Syrinx,’ and ‘Silent Voices of the Studio.’
Religious Work
Prynne shared the passionate Anglo-Catholic faith of his father and brother, George Fellowes Prynne. He is primarily known for his religious art, which was commissioned and bought for churches throughout the county—specifically in Devon and Cornwall. In many cases, Prynne’s painted altar and reredos panels and stained glass adorn the churches designed and restored by his brother.
One of Prynne’s most striking and original works is his altarpiece, ‘Benedicite Domino Laudate Et Superexaltate Eum in Saecula,’ which consists of five painted panels illustrating separate lines from the canticle of creation. In that panel, combining Prynne’s mythological and religious worlds, a sub-marine angel is garbed in scales and delicate fish fin wings.
Edward Arthur Fellowes Prynne: A Legacy of Anglo-Catholic Devotion
The painting was exhibited at the Royal Society of British Artists 114th Exhibition of 1896; a commentator noted, ‘Mr. E. A. Fellowes Prynne shows an altarpiece, “Benedicite,” rich in color and the mannerisms of the artist.’. Other artists who received passing remarks of praise by the otherwise lukewarm critic were W. Graham Robertson, William Luker, and Tom Robertson.
Prynne’s painting ‘Magnificat’ came in 1894 to the New Gallery on Regents Street, London. Other exhibits included ‘Love among the Ruins’ by Edward Burne Jones, as well as work by Lawrence Alma-Tadema, George Frederic Watts, Leonard Leslie Brooke, Charles Edward Hallé, Edward Matthew Hale, Walter Crane, William Laidlaw, and John Roddam Spencer Stanhope, George Hitchcock and George Frampton.’Magnificat’ also appeared at the L’Exposition Internationale du Bruxelles in 1897, where it was thought by a reviewer to be ‘an exquisite conception.’.
Prynne’s ‘Ecce Ancilla Domini,’ also made during the same year, was found worthy of praise for its beauty, delicacy, and composition. It was shown in the Royal Society of British Artists exhibition of 1895. Both of these pictures were given to St Mark’s Church, Hadlow Down, Sussex, by Mr. C. Lang Huggins.
Prynne’s Artistic Influence in Religious and Secular Exhibitions
‘The Desire of all Nations,’ a painting of the nativity, is one of the chief works of Prynne, and it became very famous. It was shown at the Royal Academy in 1895, and the critic for The Antiquary commented that the painting could be hung in a church. This was indeed to be the painting’s fate, for it was bought by the Rev. Harry Wilson for St. Augustine’s Church, Stepney, along with a cycle of Prynne’s Stations of the Cross.
The copyrights of both ‘Magnificat’ and ‘The Desire of all Nations’ were bought by the Berlin Photographic Company in 1896 and then photogravure printed and widely distributed in all parts of the world. The paintings were included in a Berlin Photographic Company ‘Catalogue of Select Publications’ in 1906
When Did Prynne Die?
Representing the pinnacle of his painted devotional work, in 1918, the Anglican religious order the Cowley Fathers approached Prynne to create a set of 14 painted Stations of the Cross for St John the Evangelist Church, Oxford. Prynne thought that the church “afforded a unique opportunity by reason of the splendid wall space” and regarded the commission as “a very great pleasure and high privilege,” and over the next few years, he and the Fathers wrangled over the details.
The striking—although not unproblematic—set of images was finally installed in the church in 1921. The station depicting Christ’s trial is based on Prynne’s earlier picture, ‘Christ Before Pilate,’ painted in 1898. The last four ‘Stations’ were the final paintings on which Prynne worked—the last painting he touched was the ‘Entombment of Christ.’
How Many Children Did Edward Arthur Fellowes Prynne Have?
On 29 September 1922, Emma Prynne, widow of Prynne, presented in his memory the famous 1898 painting ‘Christ Before Pilate’ to St Peter’s Church, Ealing. (In 1947, one of Prynne’s daughters donated as well a set of photographic reproductions of his Stations of the Cross for the Cowley Fathers—now lost).
In 1934, Beatrice, Yule, and their three children visited Emma Fellowes Prynne, who still lived at number 1 Woodville Road in Ealing. Edward Arthur Fellowes Prynne’s studio in the garden remained partly furnished as before his death 23 years before. Emma Fellowes Prynne’s daughter Beatrice later emigrated from South Africa to New Zealand.