Stanley Royle

Stanley Royle (1888–1961) was a post-impressionist English landscape painter and illustrator who lived for most of his life in and around Sheffield (England) and Canada. A member of the Royal Society of British Artists, he was inspired by sweeping landscapes, sea and snow scenes.

Stanley Royle RCA (Royal Canadian Academy of Arts), RBA (Royal Society of British Artists), ARWEA, the grandfather of Anthea, Stephen and Lucy Copleston was Born at Stalybridge, Cheshire - he had three sisters and a brother. In 1893 the family moved to Ecclesfield, a rural outlying district of Sheffield in South Yorkshire where his father became the stationmaster at Ecclesfield railway station.

His elder cousin, Herbert Royle, who was already a highly successful landscape painter, encouraged the young Stanley to pursue his interest in art as a career and in 1904 Stanley began studying at the Sheffield Technical School of Art. In 1908, he gained a scholarship, which enabled him to continue his studies at the art school. His earliest inspiration was his tutor, Oliver Senior, Painting Master at the art school, of whom he had a very high opinion, and who exhibited at the Royal Academy.

His first employment was as an illustrator and designer for local newspapers. In 1911 he began exhibiting professionally in the UK and in 1912 the family moved to a house in Shiregreen, another rural suburb of Sheffield. His first major success was to have three paintings accepted by the Royal Academy Summer Exhibition in 1913.

As a young man he was a keen ice skater; on one visit to the ice rink he met Lily Goulding and subsequently, in 1914 they married, living initially with his parents in Shiregreen. In 1913 he had painted Spring Morning Amongst the Bluebells which depicts his young wife-to-be standing amongst the bluebells and birch trees of Woolley Woods in Sheffield which were local to his home. He painted other versions of this subject, in which there is no figure, but this one, which was accepted by the Royal Academy in 1914 was and remains the main example of this genre. Their daughter, Jean Royle, was born in 1915 at Ridgeway, near Sheffield. She inherited this painting and it remained in her possession until 1992 when she sold it at auction.

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