Carline, George F.

Carline, George F. (1855–1920). British painter and illustrator, the head of a family of artists. He studied in London, Antwerp, and Paris (at the Académie Julian) and his work consisted mainly of landscapes, portraits, and genre scenes in an accomplished but unexceptional style. His wife Anne (1862–1945) took up painting when she was in her sixties; Sir John Rothenstein writes that ‘Certain of her paintings are reminiscent of Lowry's (which she is unlikely to have seen); others show the influence of Cubism, originally interpreted.’ They had three painter children: Sydney (1888–1929), Hilda (1889–1950), and Richard (1896–1980), all of whom studied at the Slade School. One of Sydney's fellow-students there was Stanley Spencer, who met Richard in 1915 and Hilda in 1919, when he went to dinner with the Carline family. He was immediately smitten with her: ‘As she came towards me … with the soup, I thought how extraordinary she looked … I could feel my true self in that extraordinary person.’ They married in 1925 after a stormy courtship. Their relationship was often argumentative and they divorced in 1937, but even after this and his bizarre marriage to Patricia Preece, Spencer remained devoted to Hilda. During their engagement, they often painted together, and Spencer thought highly of her work, which consisted mainly of landscapes. Her early work was influenced by Post-Impressionism, her later work by Spencer. She exhibited at the New English Art Club from 1920 to 1944 and at the Royal Academy from 1920 to 1944.

Sydney's paintings were mainly landscapes and portraits; he also made etchings and designed medals. During the First World War he served with the army and RAF and was an Official War Artist in 1918. In 1921 he became Master of Drawing at the Ruskin School, Oxford, a post he held until his death. Richard also fought during the First World War and was the youngest of all Official War Artists, working for the RAF in 1918–19. In spite of his youth, he ‘could be said to have initiated RAF art’ ( Meirion and Susie Harries, The War Artists, 1983). He was ordered ‘to draw up an overall scheme of subjects and artists as a methodical basis for the building of an RAF art collection. At this time Carline had two main concerns—to explore the possibilities of landscapes painted from the air and, more urgently, to save his elder brother Sydney … from further active service as a fighter pilot’ (he had been shot down over the Somme). After his war service, Carline—still very young—became a student at the Slade, then taught at the Ruskin School under his brother's mastership. Much of his later career was motivated by his desire to achieve international peace and friendship, and he was an active member of various organizations that promoted such ideals, including the Artists International Association. As an adviser on art education to Cambridge University, he helped to establish more liberal criteria for conducting examinations and judging excellence in children's art. He wrote Draw They Must (1968), a history of art education, and Stanley Spencer at War (1978). Richard's wife, Nancy Carline (1909–2004), was also a painter.