Lot 34
WILLIAM PAGE ATKINSON WELLS R.B.A. (SCOTTISH 1872-1923)
THRIFT IN BLOOM
Scottish Paintings & Sculpture
Auction: Day Sale | Lots 1 to 89 | Thursday 03 December 2026 from 2pm
Description
Signed, oil on canvas
Dimensions
30.5cm x 46cm (12in x 18in)
Footnote
William Page Atkinson Wells R.B.A. (1872–1923) was a prominent Scottish landscape painter. Born in Glasgow, he moved to Australia with his parents as a teenager and lived in both Sydney and Melbourne for five years. On his return to England, he enrolled at the Slade School of Fine Art in London under the French-born British painter Alphonse Legros (1837–1911). This initial training inspired Wells to move to France himself, spending time in both Paris and rural France. While in the former, he studied at the École des Beaux-Arts under William Bouguereau (1825–1905) and Gabriel Ferrier (1847–1914).
The influence of these French artists is intertwined throughout Wells' works. He was highly taken by the Barbizon School, which championed realism and naturalism, rejecting romanticised, fictional landscapes in favour of a new, progressive approach to the genre. They worked directly from nature, en plein air, often finishing paintings in a single session.
Wells always felt a pull to the sea, living near to and painting the large, flat beaches and expansive tides of the Lancashire coast, such as Sunderland Point, and later the Isle of Man and Devon. He would often paint his wife, Helen, in her Lancashire bonnet on the beach gathering mussels, as can be seen in the lovely example, The Mussel Gatherer. He also focused extensively on pastoral themes, depicting localised cottage life, coastal harvests and the vast, sprawling skies seen in his work, Thrift in Bloom. Overall, Wells used French naturalism alongside the raw beauty of the British coastline to create a legacy as a post-impressionist Scottish landscape artist.