Saint Christopher and the Christ Child before 1906
John Dickson Batten (1860–1932)
Paintings Collection
John Dicksen Batten [also known as J.D. Batten; John Dicksen Batten; and as John Dixon Batten] was born in Plymouth, Devon, England, on 8 October 1860, He began his career as a barrister and read law at Trinity College Cambridge, entering the Inner Temple in 1884. However, shortly afterwards he gave it up and enrolled at the Slade School of Fine Art, University College London where he was taught by Alphone Legros. He subsequently worked as a painter and illustrator. Both his paintings and his drawings show the evident influence of the Pre-Raphaelite tradition and the Arts and Crafts movement. He was one of the principal artists behind the revival of egg tempera as a painting medium. Among books he illustrated were 'English Fairy Tales' edited by Joseph Jacobs (London: David Nutt, 1890), 'Fairy Tales from the Arabian Nights', edited by E.
Batten began exhibiting at the Royal Academy in London in 1891 and continued to do so irregularly until 1922. He also exhibited at the International Society, Baillie Gallery, the Grosvenor Gallery, the New Gallery and the Royal Society of Painter-Etchers and Engravers, in London; Glasgow Institute of the Fine Arts; Walker Art Gallery in Liverpool; and at Manchester City art Gallery. Batten was a founding member of the Society of Painters in Tempera in November 1901.
His address was given as 15 Airlie Gardens, Campden Hill, London in 1891 and 1901; The Halsteads, Fife Road, East Sheen, London in 1911 and 1914; and 377 Sandycombe Road, Kew Gardens, Surrey in 1922. He died at Kew Gardens in Surrey, on 5 August 1932.
Text source: Art History Research net (AHR net)
