[From the catalogue-in-progress for “Landscapes & Livestock”, a loan exhibition for Agincourt Homecoming in the Fall of 2015]

BROMLEY, John Mallard* [1858-1939]

“Mill Pond”

circa 1900

oil on panel / 12 inches by 9 inches

Primarily a painter of land- and seascapes—in addition to London, he lived in picturesque coastal communities on the Thames estuary and the Channel—Bromley’s works have a rich, creamy surface, always slightly out of focus. “Mill Pond” also exhibits his penchant for artfully composed rural settings of trees with genuine personality. Did he know the landscapes of American tonalist George Innes (1825-1894)?

Bromley exhibited during the years 1880-1904. The “Cornwall Artists Index” has the most information on him in print:

London-born, he studied under his father, the artist William Bromley [in turn the grandson of the engraver William Bromley (1769-1842)]. His sending-in addresses were London (1880,1888), Rochford, Essex (1885) and St Ives, Cornwall (1897).

He moved to St Ives in 1897 and joined the Arts Club, constructing Quay House for his own use. His works show views of the town and harbour life of St Ives and neighbouring fishing ports. He was married to Selena M WING in 1899 in Penzance, she being an artist who had exhibited at Newlyn from the Opening exhibition in 1895.  John M BROMLEY is one of the signatories of the Glanville letter, a document which establishes the presence of some of the artists within the art canon of St Ives (complaining about perceived over-development of the town). The couple lived in St Ives until 1901, when they moved on to Torquay, Devon; it appears from records, however, that he maintained his membership in STISA until his death in 1939.

“Mill Pond” came to Agincourt as a bequest from Hester Tennant Farnham of Elizabeth, New Jersey through her niece Martha Tennant.

* “Mallord” is an alternate spelling; references seem evenly split between the two.