Lot Essay
Walter Bayes was born in 1869, the son of the artist, Alfred Walter Bayes, and brother of three other artists, the best known of whom was the sculptor Gilbert Bayes (1872-1953). After studying at evening classes in Finsbury (1886-1900), he went to the Westminster School of Art to study under Fred Brown, and for a short time attended the Academic Julian in Paris. He was regarded by his colleagues and fellow artists as an intellectual excelling `in what has been called the science of picture making, including perspective and the proportions and balancing of colour'. A founder member of the Allied Artists Association (1908). The Camden Town Group (1911) and the London Group (1913-15), he was an early habitue of 19 Fitzroy Street (1908), In 1918, thanks to Sickert, he was appointed Principal of the Westminster School of Art and held the post until 1934, subsequently becoming Director of Painting at the Lancaster School of Art and Crafts (1944-49).