Percy Shakespeare: Dudley’s Painter of the Thirties

Dudley’s most notable painter Percy Shakespeare was born in 1906 in the slums of the Kates Hill area of Dudley, the fourth of eight children.

In 1920, after a chance meeting at the Dudley Museum and Art Gallery with Ivo Shaw, the principal of Dudley Art School the young Percy Shakespeare was offered a place at the school where his fees were waived for his eight years attendance. Here Percy showed a talent for figure drawing and portraits. Eventually he attended Birmingham School of Art, where he studied anatomical drawing from 1923 to 1927 and obtained an Art Masters Certificate in Anatomical Drawing and qualified as a teacher.

In 1933, he had his first exhibit at the Royal Academy, “A Mulatto”, a portrait of a lady, which was later bought by Dudley Art Gallery. Throughout the 1930s, he continued to paint and produced a number of paintings each year that were submitted to the Royal Academy, and often accepted for exhibition.

He also exhibited at the Paris Salon and at the Royal Birmingham Society of Artists, of which he was elected an associate in 1936. During this period, he was living at 12, Maple Road Dudley.

Through the 1930’s Percy embarked on a series of oil paintings showing groups of people at leisure. The influence of Neo-Romanticism and Art Deco’s elegant approach is noticeable in Percy’s portrait style and he exhibited portraits at the Royal Academy and Paris Salon on numerous occasions.

In May 1943, whilst stationed ashore at Roedean School in East Sussex, he was killed when a German bomber jettisoned its payload over the south coast, when he was walking alone opposite Marine Gate in Brighton. He left behind many paintings and drawings showing life in the 1930s, many of which are held at Dudley Museum and Art Gallery.

In an obituary, Ivo Shaw was quoted as saying: “He was the best painter in oils the School had produced”.

His elegantly painted works have an romantic, aesthetic quality. They celebrate life and leisure in Dudley painted in vibrant, vital colours and offer a positiveness and optimism.

In 2009, his work was featured in an episode of BBC TV’s Flog It!.

For more info on Percy Shakespeare visit percyshakespeare.uk