Village Waits Rehearsing.

Biography:

Edward Robert King (1862-1951)

King was a portrait, figure and landscape painter, the son of William Bignell King and Agnes Jane King, née Maybury. He was the brother of the painter, etcher and illustrator William Gunning King (1859-1940) and they shared an address at South Harting, near Petersfield, Hampshire. He was active from 1884, exhibiting in London at the Royal Academy, Royal Institute of Oil Painters, Fine Art Society, Grosvenor Gallery, New English Art Club and the Society of British Artists. JW was President of the latter society from 1886-1888. He also exhibited at the Royal Society of Artists in Birmingham, Manchester City Art Gallery and Walker Art Gallery in Liverpool. King’s illustrated work was published in the Illustrated London News between 1883 and 1887 and in the Pall Mall Magazine. His sympathetic treatment of gritty rural and urban subjects was admired by Vincent van Gogh. In 1888 he was elected a member of the New English Art Club in 1888, the year JW exhibited with the group.