Ernest Townsend

Ernest Townsend
Self Portrait Ernest Townsend
Born	1 January 1880 Derby
Died	22 January 1944 Derby
Nationality	English
Education	Heatherley School of Fine Art and Royal Academy
Occupation	Portrait artist
Spouse(s)	Doris Campbell

Ernest Townsend (1 January 1880 – 22 January 1944) was a portrait artist from Derby in England.

Townsend studied at Derby College of Art, Heatherleys in Chelsea and the Royal Academy. Among his works were a 1915 portrait of the Right Hon. Winston Churchill when he was First Lord of the Admiralty. This picture now hangs in the National Liberal Club in London.

Townsend was commissioned to create a design for the roofs of the Rolls-Royce aircraft engine factories in Derby so that they would appear to German bombers to be no more than a village.

Ernest Townsend was born in Parliament Street in Derby, the youngest of James Townsend's five children. His father was a coach builder with Holmes of Derby (later Sanderson & Holmes). Coach building had been the Townsend profession practised for at least three generations. James' father, William, had moved to Derby from Bitton in Gloucestershire in the late 1850s. However, by the age of eight, Townsend's caregiver was his elder sister. His brother William George Paulson Townsend was later the editor of the Art Workers Quarterly.

His early education was at Abbey Street School and at the age of 14 he was apprenticed to a firm of architects, Wright and Thorpe (later known as T.H. Thorpe Associates), practising at 23 St James St, Derby. Thomas Harrison Thorpe, the junior partner, recognised Townsend's artistic ability immediately and a lifelong friendship developed between them.

Townsend's early promise was justified and eventually he left architecture altogether and embarked on a full-time course at the Heatherly School of Fine Art in London. He then moved to a five-year course at the Royal Academy Schools. He was enrolled as a student in the School of Painting at the Royal Academy from 28 January until January 1907. Amongst his tutors at the Academy Schools were John Singer Sargent and Lawrence Alma-Tadema. His friends included Aubrey Beardsley, Alfred Munnings, Augustus John, and Laura Knight. Townsend exhibited 15 paintings at the Academy between 1910 and 1937, as shown below.