Alfred
William Strutt was born in Tanaraki, New Zealand, the son of the
English artist William Strutt (1825-1915). His grandfather was the
miniaturist William Thomas Strutt (1777-1850) and his great-grandfather
was Joseph Strutt (1742-1802) a social historian and artist. His sisters
Rosa and Laura were also artists. His father had moved to Australia in
1850 and then to New Zealand in 1855, where he recorded the early days
of the British colony.
Alfred
and his family returned to England in 1862 where he studied at the
South Kensington School of Art. He also received tuition from his
father. Strutt began exhibiting at the Royal Academy from 1877 and also
at the Royal Society of British Artists from around this date. He lived
with his parents at 3 Bedford Place, Croydon during the late 1870’s
before moving to Motyaden, near Staplehurst Kent from 1880. However, by
1884 he was back in London at Augustine Terrace, Brook Green, Kensington
from where he kept a studio with his father.
In
1888, he became a member of the Royal Society of British Artists and an
associate member of the Royal Society of Painters and Etchers in 1889.
He was also a member of the Royal Cambrian Academy and the Royal British
Colonial Society of Artists. He married Nellie Maria Ketchlee on 1
August 1891 and they moved to East Sussex where they lived at Rhosilli,
Wadhurst, close to where his parents had moved. From around 1911, he
lived at Afterglow, Best Beech Hill, Wadshurst. He died at Hammersmith
Hospital on 8 March 1924.
Like
his father, he specialised in genre scenes, often including animals as
well as sporting scenes. Strutt’s paintings are well executed and full
of humour. In this particular painting he returns to one of his
favourite subjects of hunters startling a lady in her carriage.
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