Charles Brooke BRANWHITE
1851–1929, England

Born in Bristol on October 4, 1851, Charles Branwhite was the son of Charles Branwhite A.R.W.S. Painting had been the main interest in his family for many years, and his great-grandfather had been a close friend of Thomas Gainsborough. Naturally, “Brannie“, as he was known at the Wigwam, received very early tuition from his father who, realizing his potential, sent him to study at the South Kensington School of Art*. At the age of twenty-two, he was exhibiting at numerous galleries as a landscape painter in watercolour and oil. Included in these galleries were the Royal Academy of London*., Paris Salon*, R. I., Liverpool, etc. In 1905 he became an Artist Member and soon became a great favourite with the Tribe, the name members of Bristol Savages gave themselves. In 1908 he had a picture accepted by the Royal Academy and in 1913, he was elected a member of the Royal Watercolor Association. He was also made Hon. Secretary of Bristol Academy of Fine Arts. Of somewhat portly build., with his silver grey hair and ever ready smile, he had already proved an ideal choice for President when war broke out in 1914, and it is not surprising that he retained that position for five successive years. A small incident gives some idea of the man he was. In 1908 after the Savages Exhibition, someone who had seen a picture of his, which appealed to her, called at his house and bought it. He immediately sent a cheque to our Treasurer for £1 commission. He was a great lover of the open air and countryside and spent many weeks traveling in North Wales, Devon, Cornwall and Dorset where, in addition to his painting, he was able to indulge in his hobby of fly fishing. Being a professional artist, he painted for a livelihood and so we only possess two of his paintings, presented by him to the Tribe in the usual manner of these pros. Again, after the War when he might have been busy in the Studio, his eyesight commenced to fail and later on he became a martyr to rheumatism. In his youth he had been a very keen cricketer and in his later years was regularly to be seen at the County Ground, with the inevitable pipe. It is on record that somewhat later in life he bought a bicycle, not to save tram fares, but as a private scheme to reduce his weight. This became somewhat a joke in the Wigwam and he was subjected to much leg pulling, but he suffered it in his usual cheery manner. In March 1929 he died at his home at 41, Elliston Road, Redland at the age of seventy-six. Two of his works are in the Bristol Municipal Art Gallery (1) Bristol Harbour (2) A Wet Afternoon on Dartmoor and in the Mansion House is another viz: St. Michael’s Mount. Cornish Sunset.

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