George Owen Wynne Apperley (1884-1960) was a British painter. Described as “one of the finest” of the late Romantic artists, he worked mainly in Spain and in North Africa.
George Owen Wynne Apperley
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Self-portrait (1915)
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Born | (1884-06-17)17 June 1884
Ventnor, Isle of Wight, England
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Died | 10 September 1960(1960-09-10) (aged 76)
Tangier, Morocco
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Known for | Paintings |
Movement | Romanticism |
Apperley was born at Ventnor, on the Isle of Wight, in 1884.[1][2] He trained briefly at the Herkomer SchoolinBushey, Hertfordshire, but was mostly self-taught.[3] He moved to Spain in 1917,[4] abandoning his British wife, Hilda Pope, and family,[5] and established himself in a carmen in the Albaicín district of Granada.[6] He became friends with many of the artists resident in the city,[a] but was forced to leave in 1932 when his conservative political stance regarding the Second Spanish Republic led to the bombing of his house.[7] He moved with his second family, his muse and later wife, Enriqueta Contreras and their two sons, to Tangier, Morocco, where he died in 1960.[8] He is commemorated in Granada by a statue, unveiled in 2011.[9]
Apperley first worked on Classical and mythological subjects. His moves to Spain, and subsequently Morocco, saw his focus shift to portraiture.[10] Examples of his work are held by the Victoria & Albert Museum,[b] the Museo de Málaga, the Lady Lever Art Gallery and the Bushey Museum.[12]