About Henry John Sylvester Stannard
Henry John Sylvester Stannard RBA FRSA 1870 – 1951) was a watercolour artist born in Bedford, who was the son of a sporting painter, Henry Stannard.
He studied at the Bedford Modern School, and the National Art Training School in South Kensington.
He exhibited at the Royal Academy, the Royal Institute of Painters in Water Colours, the New Gallery, the Royal Society of British Artists and the Royal Cambrian Academy of Art. He was elected RBA in 1896.
In 1906, Stannard was honoured by Queen Alexandra with a commission for a number of pictures including Her Majesty’s Wild Garden and Woods at Sandringham. In 1922 he held an exhibition with his daughter at Brook Street Galleries in London where Queen Mary became a patron of his colour drawings. In 1934 he was commissioned by the Governors of Guernsey to paint a view of St Fermain’s Bay and the harbour, a painting that was subsequently presented to the Prince of Wales. In 1936 he painted a view of the Prince of Siam’s gardens at Virginia Water, and in 1937 two of his water colours of the River Dart were hung in the Royal Institute of Painters in Water Colours.