ARTIST:	Sir William Russell Flint RA.
DATES:	British 1880 - 1969
TITLE:	No. 1 Slipway, Devonport Dockyard
MEDIUM:	Limited Edition Collotype
SIZE:	49 x 66 cm
REMARKS:	Edition of 750; Published 1990
$NZ:	Category B
Sir William Russell FLINT RA. British 1880 - 1969 Born in Edinburgh in 1880, William Russell Flint was the eldest son of Francis Wighton Flint, a watercolourist and commercial designer. He was educated at Daniel Stewart’s College and at fourteen began a six-year apprenticeship as a draughtsman, also attending evening classes conducted by W. C. Hodder. In 1900, he ventured to London where he took a post as a medical illustrator, recording an extraordinary range of things, from bullet wounds to diseases of the eye. Prestigious commissions from establishments such as The Medici Society and The Illustrated London News followed, and he soon joined the ranks of famous illustrators such as Arthur Rackham. During these years he also attended evening classes at Heatherley’s Art School, where he met model Sibylle Sueter, whom he “instantly” fell in love with and married in 1905. Influenced by the Impressionism of Arthur Mitchell and the latter day Glasgow School, as early as 1906 the Royal Academy accepted his work, and in 1910 he was elected to the R.O.I. During the First World War, Flint served as a Lieutenant in the R.N.V.R. and as a Captain in the R.A.F. After the war, his connection with Naval ‘top brass’ allowed him access to the Devonport Dockyard where he regularly painted. One of these paintings, No. 1 Slipway, Devonport Dockyard, above, became his Diploma Work for the Royal Watercolour Society. Indeed, from the outset of his career Flint’s work won immediate favour, and exhibiting bodies were quick to give him official recognition. He became an Associate of the Royal Academy in 1924, a full member in 1933 and later, a trustee from 1943-1955. In 1962 the Royal Academy awarded him the rare and notable honour of a solo exhibition of his life's work. These achievements are remarkable considering Flint was primarily a watercolourist and draughtsman. Notwithstanding his achievements, Flint also sparked his fair share of adversity for what was considered his perverse predilection for young, lithe brunettes languishing on beds or engaging in “various menial tasks wearing very little.” At the opening of his retrospective exhibition at the Royal Academy, his works were denounced as “picturesquely indelicate girlscapes” by the Observer and Flint was dubbed “the pin-up king”. However Flint’s more discerning admirers accurately placed him within the great tradition of western art, associating him with the likes of Boucher, Ingres and Etty. Flint later remarked that his admiration for such artists left him with an aesthetic preference for models he described as “Artemisian figures. The Rubenesque type is not for me.” The Yorkshire Post described his nubile beauties in 1962 as “comely creatures, who wiggle and stretch their toes and curiously crane their necks.” His works have increasingly demanded high prices and on some instances have received record prices at auction. The main auction houses are now aggressively pursuing the private collector, hitherto regarded as the domain of the dealer, and naturally the net effect is to force prices even higher. The publication of limited edition prints not only feeds the ever-growing current demand, but was also the original vehicle that led to the popular cult figure status he realised in his own lifetime. No. 1 Slipway, Devonport Dockyard Through the good offices of his friend, Admiral John Moore, Flint gained access on Sundays to the old Devonport Shipyard and painted this work, regarded by the R.W.S as his Diploma Work, although by then he was well into his twenty-year presidency of the August body. It is a picture held in the highest academic regard by the R.W.S., as is clear from the following: "The handling of the brush is breathtaking in its economy and purpose. Flint has freely depicted the great timbers of this structure as if they were the piers and vaulting of a cathedral. The great vault is, on close inspection, seeming mish-mash of vigorous sweeps of brown washes, painted wet-in-wet and wet on dry. Standing away from the picture, every timber falls into place and the architectural unity is preserved. The height of the roof is emphasised by angular, dark brush strokes. Along the right-hand side of the dock and in the middle distance, much greater detail is unfolded and there are some brilliant renditions of figures and machinery, indicated only with the merest dabs of paint. Of all the works of our century in the R.W. S. collection, this must be one of the most satisfying. Its monumentality and historical interest place it as a significant work of modern British art." - M. Spender, The Glory of Watercolour.
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