Wynford Dewhurst

Born in Manchester on January 26, 1864, Wynford Dewhurst was originally trained for a legal career before turning seriously to art. He studied in Paris at the École des Beaux-Arts under Jean-Léon Gérôme, and during this period he changed his name from Thomas Edward Smith to Wynford Dewhurst. Time in France proved decisive: he became strongly drawn to Impressionism and developed a style influenced above all by Claude Monet.

Dewhurst was both a painter and a writer on art. His 1904 book Impressionist Painting: Its Genesis and Development is widely noted as one of the first important studies of French Impressionism published in English. In it, he argued that modern French Impressionism owed a significant debt to British landscape painting, especially Turner and Constable, a view that helped make the book memorable and controversial.

As a painter, he returned often to France to work on luminous landscapes, especially scenes in the Seine and Creuse valleys. He is perhaps best remembered today for The Picnic and for his role in bringing Impressionist ideas to British audiences. Dewhurst died on July 9, 1941.