J. Alfred Swatkins Sketchbooks

J. Alfred Swatkins was a British artist sketching land, sea and townscapes in Cornwall during and after World War I.

John Alfred Swatkins (1868-1949) was born in Birmingham and was the eldest of eleven children of William Swatkins (1846-1931), a lamp and chandelier maker, and his wife Eliza Angelina Crowton (1846-1920). He first exhibited work at Birmingham in 1888 but he worked in the postal service throughout his career. In 1894, he married Annie Ballard (1870-1954), but he does not appear to have had any children. He lived initially in Harborne, Staffordshire, but moved later in life to Welford-on-Avon in Warwickshire. He specialised in etchings and in addition to scenes near his home, he also produced a number of etchings of Cornish subjects, particularly St Ives and Polperro. He was still exhibiting his work right up to his death in 1949. A local review of an exhibition of his in Stratford in 1944 commented, “Mr Swatkins has not only confident competence but the contribution of a personally interesting vision, and his pictures are as full of character as of skill.” There is evidence of his work still being exhibited and sold at auction for an estimated $500-$800.

Marie Corelli, pen name for Mary Mackay (1855-1924), was a British novelist during the Victorian period. Some of her better-known works include: A Romance of Two Worlds (1886); Wormwood (1890); The Sorrows of Satan (1895); and The Secret Power (1921).