STARK, Arthur James

1831 - 1902

Arthur James Stark

Arthur James Stark was born at Beaufort Street, Chelsea on 6 October 1831, only son of James Stark, a landscape painter, and his wife Elizabeth Younge née Dinmore (1797-1834), who married at Thorpe, Norwich on 17 July 1821. Initially instructed by his father and then studied animal painting under Edmund Bristow (1797-1834) later, when they were living at Windsor 1839-1849, Arthur acquired a love of the Thames valley where he found the subjects of many of his pictures. In 1849 the family moved from Windsor to London, when Arthur entered the Royal Academy Schools, he also studied under animal painter Friedrich Wilhelm Keyl (1823-1871) and rented a studio for three years at Tattersall's where he perfected his painting of horses, but for many years he taught art in London as well as continuing his painting. As early as 1848, he was exhibiting at the Royal Academy and at the British Institution; the Society of British Artists; the Institute of Painters in Water Colours and elsewhere including at the Suffolk Fine Arts Association at Ipswich in 1850 'Peter Boats on the Thames'. He married at All Saints' Church, Ascot, Berkshire on 20 November 1878, Rose Isabella Kent, youngest daughter of Thomas Fassett Kent, counsel to the chairman of committees in the House of Lords, and they had a son and a daughter. In 1886 he retired to Nutfield, Surrey and was a member and exhibitor at the Norfolk & Norwich Art Circle 1887-1893 from Redhill, Surrey and devoted the remainder of his life exclusively to painting, working until within a few days of his death at 'Thornbank', South Nutfield, Surrey, on 29 October 1902.

Royal Academy Exhibits
from 10 York Place, Windsor
1848 226 A Water Mill
1849 529 An Alehouse Door
from 35 Norfolk Street, Strand, London
1850 237 Donkey and Foal
         747 A Study from Nature
1851 347 Fetching the Mallard
1852 1262 A Rest from Sport
1853 An Interior of a Stable
1854 204 Cattle and landscape
         1260 A Corner in a Farmyard
1855 303 A Startled Heron
         1074 A Summer Afternoon
from Langham Chambers, Langham Place, London
1857 65 At Rest
         214 A Quiet Nook
1858 954 Done Work
1859 157 Left in Charge
         443 On the Lighthouse Hills, Cromer, Norfolk
1860 62 On the Teme, Ludlow, Shropshire
         581 Evening
1861 481 A Shady Pool
from The Studio, Tattersall's, Grosvenor Place, Southwest London
1862 323 Amateurs
1863 709 A Hunter: the property of His Grace the Duke of Rutland
from 17 Langham Street, Portland Place, London
1865 402 In Moor Park, Rickmansworth
         534 Waiting at the Ferry
1866 120 The Moor Park
1867 401 The Pasture
1868 156 Under the Beeches
1869 213 Feeding Time
1871 334 The Homestead
1872 133 In the Shade
         175 Down in the Meadows
from 42 Fitzroy Street, Fitzroy Square, West London
1873 97 The Angler's Nook
1874 1390 Timber Carting
1875 1161 A Farmyard
1877 587 Dartmoor Drift
from 42 Grove End Road, St John's Wood
1883 102 Whitening to the Harvest




Works by This Artist