BLACKLOCK, William Kay

1872 - 1924

William [Kay] Kirkbride Blacklock was born at Bishopwearmouth, Sunderland in 1872, second son of John Blacklock (1812-1886), engine fitter, and his wife Isabella née Blackett, who married at Sunderland in 1870. In 1881, William was an 8-year-old, living at 5 Hudson’s Buildings, Bishop Wearmouth, Sunderland with his parent’s, 39-year-old John and 36-year-old Isabella, and his two siblings, Robert 11 and Helen 6, both born at Sunderland. His father John, died in 1886 and in 1891, young William was an 18-year-old lithographer’s apprentice, living at 10 Corporation Road, Rickersgate, Carlisle where his widowed mother was a publican. By 1901, they had moved to 4 Dixon Street, William still a lithographer and his mother a ‘boarding housekeeper’. William then studied at the School of Art in Edinburgh followed by the Royal College of Artt in London and under the name of William Kay Blacklock was a painter in oil and watercolour of genre scenes and landscapes, living in London. As William Kay Blacklock he married at Chelsea in 1909, Ellen Eliza Nellie Richardson and in 1911, a 41-year-old artist painter living at 46 Gunder Grove, Chelsea with his 23-year-old wife Ellen Eliza and one year old daughter, Eleanor Irene, born at Chelsea. His wife Ellen, known as Nellie, was to become his model for a series of paintings 1910-1917 and was an artist in her own right, firstly under her maiden name of Richardson then as Blacklock. William exhibited seventeen works at the Royal Academy 1897-1918 also showing at the Birmingham Royal Society of Artists; Royal Glasgow Institute of the Fine Arts; Walker Art Gallery; London Salon; Manchester City Art Gallery; Royal Institute of Painters in Water Colour; Royal Scottish Academy and the Royal Institute of Oil Painters from 1897 until 1921. By 1912, they had moved to 'The Barn' Walberswick and in 1916 were still living at Walberswick but in 1918 were at Hemingford Abbots, St Ives, Huntingdonshire and were still there on 19 June 1921 but by 1922 had moved on to Liskerd, Cornwall. William Kirkbride Blacklock died at Stonehaven, Polperro, Cornwall on 11 August 1924, leaving his estate to his widow.

Royal Academy Exhibits
from 22 Northcote Avenue, Sunderland
1897 1144 The home of the Fishermen: Whitby - watercolour
         1224 A Study - watercolour
from 2 Margaretta Terrace, Chelsea
1900 1351 A Shepherd's Daughter - watercolour
from 40 Juer Street, Battersea
1901 968 Through the Wood - watercolour
         1241 Evening Glow: Rye - watercolour
from School of Art, Royal Institution, The Mount, Edinburgh
1902 961 A Sunny Hillside - watercolour
1906 784 Evening after the Rain: Barnard Castle, Yorkshire
1908 1056 Morning - watercolour
         1157 The Lesson - watercolour
from Studio, 46 Gunter Grove, Chelsea
1910 920 Spring - watercolour
1911 802 A Sunny Corner - watercolour
from The Barn, Walberswick, Southwold, Suffolk
1913 1081 Industry
1914 59 A Dutch Idyll
         1316 The Young Goat
from Hemingford Abbot's, St Ives, Huntingdonshire
1918 492 Summer
         642 The Shepherd's Daughter

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Works by This Artist