Rue Gubernatis, Nice

Frederick Marriott (1860-1941) was a painter and etcher of landscapes, architectural subjects and portraits. He grew up in Stoke-on-Trent and received his early, local training in the school of Art, Coalbrookdale. Aged 14, he went to work as a pottery painter in a factory, and in 1879 he gained a National Scholarship at the Royal College of Art, London, where he studied for three years.

He then worked as a designer and illustrator to Marcus Wood and Co, and later became Chief Designer with the  publishers Eyre and Spottiswood, and remained there for nearly five years. He practised repoussé work, wood carving, enamelling and modelling, and produced some fine panels in modelled gesso with mother-of-pearl inlay.

Marriott was Design Master at Blackheath Art School, Headmaster of the Onslow College Art School, Chelsea, and Headmaster, Goldsmith's Institute, 1895-1925. He was also a member of the Arts and Crafts Society, the Art Workers' Guild and the Royal Society of Painter-Etchers and Engravers. He made continental tours working on town scenes with the emphasis on architecture, and also visited and painted in Australia about 1910. He was friendly with well known contemparies, all of whom are represented in Te Papa's collection, notably Frank Brangwyn, George Clausen, Alfred Drury and Alfred East.

Marriott's charming urban panorama depicts a then non-touristy street in central Nice, in the South of France. We look down the steep streetscape, with lots of figures moving about, including two with a pushcart, a street sweeper, loafers and smarter ladies chatting in the forergound. Dwellings ranging up to seven stories high line the street, as does no shortage of laundry hanging out to dry.

See: Stoke-on-Trent Biographies, 'Frederick Marriott', http://www.thepotteries.org/biographies/marriott_fred.htm

Dr Mark Stocker   Curator, Historical International Art    May 2018