BATCHELDER, Stephen John

1849 - 1932

Stephen John Batchelder was born at Little Bolton, Lancashire on 17 January 1849, son of Stephen John Batchelder (c.1824-17 May 1892), a boot & shoemaker, and his wife Sarah née Hewitt (c1929-1887), who married at Little Bolton in 1845. By 1851, they had returned to live at Oak Street, Norwich with his paternal grandfather, 49-year-old Stephen John Batchelder (1801-1882), a widower, also a boot & shoemaker. In 1861, young Stephen, with his parents, were boarding at Skirbeck Corner, Boston, Lincolnshire when they are described as 'travellers [showmen]' and in 1863 Stephen received a prize medal from the Preston School of Art for 'Outline from the Flat'. He then obtained a position with a Norwich photographer and married at St Augustine's Church, Norwich on 6 April 1868, Anna Lubbock and their eldest son, another Stephen John Batchelder, was born in 1870, who became a science master at Ipswich School and a Fellow of the Linnaean Society and died at Ipswich in 1949. Stephen, the artist, attended Great Yarmouth College of Art and in 1871, a 22-year-old photographer, living at North Terrace, Great Yarmouth with his 23-year-old wife Anna and their 10-month-old son Stephen John and ten years later were living at 2 Nelson Road, Great Yarmouth with the addition of three more children. He gave up photography in 1882 in favour of painting and in 1883 was living at 11 Maud Terrace, Belvedere Road, Great Yarmouth and soon established a reputation as a prolific watercolour painter of the Norfolk Broads. In 1891, a 42-year-old sculptor, artist &c., living at 24 Beaconsfield Road, Great Yarmouth with his wife, four children, his son the young Stephen John had departed for Ipswich, and they had a further daughter, 4-year-old Emma. In 1911, a 62-year-old artist/painter living at 7 Garrison Road, Great Yarmouth with his wife and two unmarried daughters, both schoolteachers. A member of the Ipswich Fine Art Club 1894-1928 and in 1883 he exhibited from 11 Maud Terrace, Belvedere Road, Great Yarmouth, three watercolours ‘It’s Going to Rain’, ‘Boat House-Irstead Shoals, Norfolk’ and ‘Green Lane, Neatishead’ and in 1923 from Gorleston Road, Great Yarmouth an oil 'Sunsplashes, Burgh Flats, Breydon' and two watercolours 'Hickling Broad, River Thurne' and 'The Bure, near Salhouse', he also exhibited at the Woodbridge Art Exhibition in 1889 two watercolours 'On the Bure' and 'On the Yare'. He was also a member and exhibitor at the Norfolk & Norwich Art Circle 1927-1929 and of the Great Yarmouth & District Society of Artists in 1928. Stephen John Batchelder died at 7 Garrison Road, Great Yarmouth on 19 June 1932, aged 83 and his wife Anna followed on 8 September 1936, aged 89.

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Works by This Artist