EDWARD STEEL HARPER RBSA (1878-1951) Biography
BIRMINGHAM SCHOOL (1843-1971)

Exhibition History

London, Peter Nahum at The Leicester Galleries, The Brotherhood of Ruralists and the Pre-Raphaelites, June - July 2005

Description / Expertise

In the second half of the nineteenth century, the Royal Birmingham Society of Artists became the envy of the world. Its teachings were centered on the Arts and Crafts movement, the very epitome of an apprenticeship to Morris & Co. William Morris himself came to lecture at the society three times during 1879 and 1880. Artists were encouraged to work in many media, from wall painting, miniatures, enamel and stained glass to embroidery, wood and metalwork. Edward Robert Taylor, the society’s Headmaster at the turn of the century, boasted: We were the first school, to begin to link the processes with design – that is, we allowed students an opportunity of working in other materials than paper or clay.(1) From 1881, the society had begun to elect Associates on the model of the Royal Academy. The first intake included Walter Langley, the founder of the Newlyn School and in 1885, Sir Edward Coley Burne-Jones was reclaimed by his native city, accepting the post of President.

Edward Steel Harper was a product of the society’s tradition; one of three children who became professional artists. He was elected a member of the Royal Birmingham Society of Artists in 1915. Not only was he an accomplished landscape painter, but also a skilled craftsman in both wood and metal. This subtle and complex wooded landscape, painted with the Pre-Raphaelite technique of pure glazes, is contained within a handcrafted arts and crafts copper frame, possibly beaten by the artist. As so many Birmingham society students before him, Harper has combined the skills of different media.


1. The Birmingham Daily Mail, 17 February 190