About William Breakspeare
William Arthur Breakspeare (1856 – 1914) was an artist born in Edgbaston, Birmingham. He was the son of John Breakspeare, a flower painter working in the Birmingham japanning trade.
Breakspeare painted many genres including portraits, figurative, and 18th-century costume pieces, as well as landscapes.
He trained at the Birmingham Government School of Design and Charles Verlat’s Academy in Antwerp.
He was closely associated with the Royal Birmingham Society of Artists (RBSA) gallery, exhibiting works from 1874 to 1899. He was one of the first Associates of the RBSA in 1881 and was elected to the RBSA in 1884.
He was also a founder member of the Birmingham Art Circle. In about 1884 he visited Newlyn in Cornwall where other ‘Birmingham Boys’ were helping to establish the colony of artists.
Breakspeare later moved to Paris in 1879, where he exhibited at the RBSA. However, he didn’t stay very long and in 1881, he moved to Haverstock Hill in London. He exhibited at the Royal Academy in London from 1883 to 1893.
