Starving Artists Run in the Family

George Thompson Pritchard, 1878-1962, was an artist from New Zealand who ultimately found commercial success in the United States, with his landscapes and seascapes. He was my great-uncle.

The following is from his biography (for more see  ArtisticGallery.com, Jay and Carole Rosenblatt): “During WWI Pritchard lived in Canada, New York City and Richmond, Virginia.”

One sentence skims over so many untold stories.  The following would be in danger of disappearing with its last remaining witness, my mother, Adrienne Courtney Pritchard Urban, shown here with an early oil of Uncle G's.

Mom was still a toddler when her parents, Sydney E. and Elizabeth (known as Nancy) Pritchard, lived on Riverside Drive in New York City in the 20’s and 30's.  Arturo Toscanini was a neighbor.  As if it happened yesterday, Mom recalls,

“One day my Mother opened the front door. A frightening-looking man stood there, hair and clothes disheveled; he looked to be a vagrant. To my astonishment my Mother cried, “George,” threw her arms around her husband’s brother, and led him inside.”

Mom doesn’t know how long Uncle George stayed with her parents while he got back on his feet nor does she know from whence he came, but she does remember watching him work:

“I’d sit on the stairs going down to the basement, where Uncle George had his easels set up  He painted under different names: his own, Jane Wilcox and Kleinfeller; but the styles were all different.  He’d swizzle his whiskey, classical music blaring and dab paint on four or five canvases at once, his left arm flailing behind him. 

“He’d get orders from NYC department stores for so many works by this artist and so many by that.  He left many paintings with my parents when he moved on," but unfortunately they were forced to sell or barter many of them during hard times. "The rest were eventually divided between the five of us children.”

Uncle George's paintings get traded within our family like baseball cards.  Mom owns five but only three are burned into my memory:  an oil featuring a beautiful Dutch sailing ship (right, with Dad and me; perhaps influencing my own adventures on Ruff Life); an oil landscape shown further up, with Mom and her terrific red wallpaper;and lastly Gathering Kelp, a watercolor depicting a horse-drawn cart on a deserted lane (above right, with Mom on her b-day, shortly before her passing).

I've seen that same painting elsewhere online yet assumed Mom's to be the original but maybe they're ALL originals, since he painted more than one canvas at a time. I've painted dozens of similar pieces at the same time myself, and each one's an original.  Makes sense.

Mom inherited two more small paintings after Uncle Dolf, who remained childless, passed away.  All of them have their original frame.

Reading Uncle George’s bio, he appears to have had a relatively smooth path to acclaim but I know otherwise, and that gives me tremendous hope. Even George Thompson Pritchard was once one step away from “Skid Row”, but with hard work and determination he ultimately became a successful, renowned artist.
One of his paintings, depicting the signing of the Bill of Rights by William III, was presented to the New Zealand House of Representatives. You can read about it on Google Books but I'll have to dig up the newspaper account, with painting, packed at home.
Update June 2020:  FOUND IT! (left)

So whenever I get discouraged and ready to give up I think of Uncle George and his stump, and remind myself that it’s not just talent but perseverance. Hope springs eternal in my soul, so I sure hope I’ve inherited some of his genes!

P.S. A GTP watercolor of the Anne Hathaway Cottage (Shakespeare's wife) was painted for his sister-in-law Nancy as a reminder of home in England, I imagine.
It was always a favorite of Aunt Cathy's, who stayed with her sister-in-law while Uncle Julian (who initially lost out on the divvying of paintings) was stationed overseas. Aunt Barbara, who also had more than one, gifted it to Aunt C, where it took center stage in their living room forevermore.  For another story with additional family photos please enjoy, "What was Good Enough for Mom."   



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