Richard Evelyn Fuller Maitland (1885-1953)

Richard Evelyn Fuller Maitland (British 1885-1953). Artist and Soldier, Maitland was the son of the art collector and Liberal politician William Fuller Maitland (1884–1932), of Stansted Hall, Essex. William Maitland had inherited from his own father an important collection of early Italian paintings, nine of which he sold to the National Gallery, London, in 1878, including 'The Mystic Nativity' by Botticelli [no.NG1034]. Educated at Harrow School, Richard Maitland went on to study at Sir Hubert Herkomer’s Art School, Bushey, Hertfordshire. He also pursued a part-time military career, gaining the rank of captain in the Scots Guards. Essentially a gentleman-artist, Maitland exhibited twice at the Royal Academy, in 1904 and in 1921, when he showed a portrait of a judge, Edwin Max Konstam. His known oeuvre is small and includes 'A Mediterranean Scene' (Bushey Museum and Art Gallery, 2004.108.1), a portrait of Sir Frederick Liddell, First Parliamentary Counsel, dated 1913 (Government Art Collection, no.1203) and two portraits of senior members of the Admiralty. Also in 1913, Magdalene College, Cambridge, commissioned a sketch from Maitland of Thomas Hardy, then aged seventy-two.