William Somerville Shanks (1878-1920)
William Somerville Shanks (1878-1920) was born in Gourock in Renfrewshire, Scotland. Working full time as a textile designer, he attended evening classes at the Glasgow School of Art under the headmaster and innovative plain air painter, Francis `Fra' Newbery.
These classes instilled in him a determination to take up painting full-time and in 1889 he moved to Paris where he studied under Jean Joseph Benjamin Constant at the Académie Julian for three years. In his vibrant, free brushwork and use of colour he combines the influence of the French Realist Edouard Manet with his Scottish contemporaries, Fra Newbery and Sir John Lavery. He later taught at the Glasgow School of Art between 1910 and 1939 and in 1922, received a silver medal at the Société des Artistes Français.
These classes instilled in him a determination to take up painting full-time and in 1889 he moved to Paris where he studied under Jean Joseph Benjamin Constant at the Académie Julian for three years. In his vibrant, free brushwork and use of colour he combines the influence of the French Realist Edouard Manet with his Scottish contemporaries, Fra Newbery and Sir John Lavery. He later taught at the Glasgow School of Art between 1910 and 1939 and in 1922, received a silver medal at the Société des Artistes Français.