Description
Frederick Davenport Bates (Manchester, 1867 – 1930)
Under the Lemon Tree, Cairo
Material: Oil on panel
Dimension: 29 x 44 cm
Frame: Yes
Biography
Frederick Davenport Bates was born in Chorlton-on-Medlock, Manchester in 1867. His father was Peter Bates, at that time a corn dealer; his mother Mary was born Mary Rawstron in Stockport. Peter Bates gave his birthplace as ‘Furness, Cheshire’ – the village now known as Furness Vale, now part of the High Peak district of Derbyshire.
Frederick was the youngest of the family; he had four older sisters. In the 1850s the family had lived in Stockport, and soon after Frederick’s birth they moved back there, settling at 33 Thomson Street, near the Infirmary, by 1871. By this time Peter had progressed from corn dealer to accountant: an 1874 directory lists him as ‘accountant, house, land and commission agent’ with an office at 12 Vernon Street and a home at 94 Wellington Road South, Stockport. Peter died in 1880; the family remained in the small house at no. 94, three doors down from the Nelson Tavern. (The house longer exists, a modern building stands on the site.)
On leaving school Frederick served an apprenticeship as a draughtsman with Hetherington & Sons, engineers, of Vulcan, Phoenix and Ancoats Works, Manchester, makers of machine tools and textile machinery, where he learned to draw accurately, and was encouraged in amateur artistic efforts by John Muir Hetherington (1833-1908), son of the founder and a partner in the firm. Having served his time, aged 21 he decided to forego engineering for a career as an artist.
Traveling
The 1891 census lists Mary Bates, ‘living on own means’ with Emily (aged 32), Mary jr. (aged 35), and Elizabeth (entered as Lily, aged 26) at 62 Bramhall Lane in Cale Green. Frederick does not feature in the 1891 census at all: he was away following his ambition. At the age of 16 he had exhibited a painting at Manchester Art Gallery, and as soon as he could, perhaps with the help of an inheritance from his father, he was off to Paris to learn the painter’s trade in the ‘ateliers of the “Boul Mich”‘ – the Boulevard St.Michel. He became a student at the Academie Julian – an independent school no entrance exams and with nominal fees – where he was taught by Adolphe William Bouguereau, Tony Robert-Fleury, and Gabriel Ferrier.
He then moved to Antwerp where, under the influence of the Flemish tradition, he developed the ideas for his religious paintings. He won a prize of the Belgian Academy of Fine Arts, entitling him to the use of a studio and a choice of two professors from the Academy as tutors. He chose Albrecht de Vriendt, who was court painter to King Leopold, and Pierre Jan Van de Ouderaa, with a view to becoming a portrait specialist.
In 1895 he travelled to the Middle East, North Africa and the Holy Land. Mr. Davenport Bates, the artist, is a native of Manchester, but was brought to Stockport when he was six months old, so with justice he is claimed as a Stockport artist. While he was studying art at Antwerp he was deeply impressed by Rubens’ masterly pictures of religious subjects, and he formed an ambition to paint a picture on an heroic scale.
In 1895 he made an extensive tour of the East, visiting among other places Palestine and Egypt, and the result was that he brought back a large number of sketches of Eastern people and scenes. He then set to work on the great picture of which the Salvation Army is now the fortunate possessor.
