Description
John Fulleylove R.I was a painter and illustrator who specialised in landscapes, and architectural scenes. He was born in Leicester on 18 August 1844.
Educated under the Rev John Highton at Mill Hill School (the forerunner of Leicester Grammar School), Fulleylove was articled at the age of 16 to the local firm of architects, Flint and Shenton. In his free hours, he began to develop a strong interest in Picturesque architecture by sketching from nature, and he gradually focused on painting. He received some instruction from Harry Ward, a drawing master of the school of James Duffield Harding.
On 18 June 1878, Fulleylove married the artist, Elizabeth Elgood, the daughter of a wool merchant, and a sister of the artists, George and Thomas Elgood. Though George studied under Wilmot Pilsbury at Leicester School of Art, he received some tuition from Fulleylove, and sketched with him, Pilsbury and his brother, Thomas, in the Leicestershire countryside.
Fulleylove secured his reputation with eight solo shows held at the Fine Art Society between 1886 and 1906, and especially with the exhibition in 1896 of 90 drawings that had been made on his travels through Greece with his friends, Alfred Higgins and Somers Clarke. He was able to capitalise on this success through his increasing work as a landscape illustrator, and especially for books published by A & C Black, which ranged from John Kelman’s The Holy Land (1902) to Arthur Poyser’s The Tower of London (1908). He also raised his international profile, and received a bronze medal at the Exposition Universelle in Paris in 1889 and an honourable mention at the Exposition Universelle in 1900.
His work is represented in numerous public collections, including the British Museum and the V&A; the New Walk Museum & Art Gallery (Leicester); and the Yale Center for British Art (New Haven, CT) and for sale with notable private galleries and dealers.
