Edward Handley-Read (1870–1935) was an interesting figure whose diverse output is a testament to his enquiry and energetic mind. He studied at the Kensington School of Art, the progressive Westminster School of Art and at the Royal Academy Schools, where he won the Creswick Prize for his landscape painting. His swift, discerning draughtsmanship and his confident manipulation of colour were shaped by this training.
In 1895 he became a member of the Royal Society of British Artists. He embarked on his career as an illustrator, but soon was called up to serve in the Artists’ Rifles during the First World War. He produced many illustrations for training purposes as well as swiftly executed drawings of the horrors of war, which were exhibited between 1916 and 1918 at The Leicester Galleries in London.
After the War, Edward Handley-Read’s artistic output was very varied. It included English landscapes, colourful seascapes and portrait commissions of military men and local civic celebrities.
His wife was the pioneering suffragette Dr Eva Handley-Read, who was one of the country’s first trained woman dental surgeons and a campaigner for women’s advance into the profession. Their son was Charles Handley-Read (1916–1971), the dedicated enthusiast for Victorian art, architecture and design and knowledgeable scholar about the work of William Burges.
