Harold Whaley
Epithet: Artist (1896-1976)
Record type: Biographies
Biography: Harold Whaley is thought to have been the son of Edwin Whaley, a joiner and carpenter. Little is known about his early life and artistic training, but he lived in Baildon near Shipley, Yorkshire from 1916 until at least the 1950s. He also appears to have lived in Port St Mary in 1914.
He is known to have exhibited between 1914 and 1929 at the Royal Academy in London, the Royal Scottish Academy, the Royal Cambrian Academy and the Walker Art Gallery in Liverpool.
Art:
Harold Whaley specialised in Manx landscape oil paintings, but was well-known for his etchings and aquatints of Manx rural life. He produced several etchings of Manx rural scenes, two of which were used as illustrations for W. Walter Gill’s 'Manx Scrapbook' (1929).
As well as his artistic style being very similar to William Hoggatt’s, they were good friends and are known to have painted together on the Island, including at Ballachurry farm, Rushen.
Several of Whaley’s paintings were exhibited at the Manx Museum in 1931-2 at an exhibition of work by local artists. Although William Hoggatt’s work was highly appreciated, the report of the exhibition in the Manx Museum Journal noted that:
'For composition and for variety of accomplishment, the most enjoyable works are those by Mr Harold Whaley. ‘Sulby Mill’ is perhaps the grandest, it deserves the popular epithet ‘monumental’. A large watercolour of windblown trees and of a whitewashed farm, (No.51, ‘Glentramman’), also by Mr Whaley, stays in my mind even more by reason of its freshness, spontaneity and vigour, and of its original but unforced design.'
(Mr C.H. Johnson, National Gallery, 1932)
Occupation / profession: artist
Gender: Male
Date of birth: 1896
Place of birth: Castleford, England
Date of death: 1976
Place of death: Edinburgh, Scotland