1871 – 1951
Charles Edwin Flower was born on the 4th April, 1871 in Merton, Surrey. He studied at the Royal College of Art in London and was a Painter, Graphic Artist, Illustrator and Wood Engraver. For 4 years and for £72 per annum, he was an assistant to Augustus Pitt Rivers (1827-1900) at Rushmore in Wiltshire, where he produced many drawings for its first few catalogues of the collection.
In 1899, he married sculptress Alice Perry, born 1860 in Croydon and by 1904, the couple were living in Anerley, South London, where their son Edwin was born on 15th June 1904. However, in 1902 Charles had visited the Americas, both North and South, including Buenos Aires, Rio de Janeiro, New York, Toronto, Ottawa, Montreal, and Quebec. From 1906, he travelled through Europe, spending most of his time in Germany, and painting everywhere he went.
With fellow artist Henry B. Wimbush (1858-1943) he worked for almost 40 years for the London postcard publisher Raphael Tuck & Sons. His pictures from his travels were mostly sold in his ‘Oilette’ series (small versions of oil paintings) from about 1903. In 1907, he and the family moved to Warborough, where he lived until his death in 1951. He was a member of the Nottingham Society of Artists and the British Watercolour Society.
Charles exhibited 17 works at the Royal Society of Artists Birmingham, 7 at the Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool, 13 at the Royal Academy and 1 at the Royal Society of British Artists.
‘In the Rhododendron Dell at Kew Gardens’. The painting depicts a path through the dell, with tall rhododendron bushes in many colours on each side.
A letter from him is held in the Salisbury and South Wiltshire Museum Pitt-Rivers papers:
84 Sistra Road
Balham, S.W.
Oct 7th 94
Dear Sir,
I have applied for the position of draughtsman for the Egyptian Exploration Fund, and should feel gratified if you will give me, at your earliest convenience, a testimonial which I can produce on application.
I remain
Dear Sir
Yr. obedient servant
Charles E. Flower
This letter therefore confirms the dates that Flower worked as a draughtsman for Pitt-Rivers. There is a letter from The Meisenbach Co. Ltd. of West Norwood seeking references for Flower from Pitt-Rivers and a copy letter from Pitt-Rivers giving him a short, but good, reference, and suggesting that Flower’s best recommendation is the drawings he had had reproduced by Meisenbach (presumably on Pitt-Rivers’ request). If this artist is the one that worked with Pitt-Rivers then he went on to draw landscapes in Germany and the Channel Islands as well as around England.
Charles & Alice are living with Alice’s brother and his occupation is listed as Artist / Draughtsman
The above picture of the church St Helen, Bishopsgate is on an old postcard.
The picture forms part of a set of six postcards featuring Old London Churches, produced by the great postcard publishers Raphael Tuck & Co in 1904 and all painted by the same artist, Charles Flower. This was the golden age of the picture postcard and hundreds of thousands of Tuck’s cards were manufactured and sent every year.
Charles was one of Tuck’s most prolific artists and contributed around 300 paintings over a long career. He travelled widely, with the scenes he captured covering the USA, Canada, Germany, and Argentina as well as the breadth of the UK. The ubiquity of Tuck’s postcards must have made Flower’s work some of the most recognised of the early 20th century. Despite this, we know relatively little of him beyond that, prior to working for Tuck, he was employed as an artist by the pioneering archaeologist Augustus Pitt Rivers to illustrate a catalogue of the vast number of finds from excavations on Pitt Rivers’ Wiltshire estate.
Charles, Alice & Edwin are now living at 15 The Green North, Warborough.
Charles is listed as being an Artist (painter), Wood Engraver and Map & Plan draughtsman.
Charles did many paintings around London including London Zoo, The House of Commons, The House of Lords, Downing Street, The Royal Chelsea Hospital and many street scenes.
An unsigned painting believed to be by Alice Bertha Flower, nee Parry
Thanks to all those who allowed us to take photos of their paintings for this article. If there are any more in the village we would love to be able to show them, so please Contact Us
Researched by Lynda Raynor 2023