Charles Henry Sims RA, RWS

Charles Sims was a leading painter of portraits and landscapes, often joyous, mythical and sacred.  He was badly affected by the death of his son in World War I and his subjects became more imaginative and ideosyncratic with darker overtones which divided the critics.

The context of this painting is that the Sims family moved to Fittleworth in September 1905 and to the neighbouring village of Lodsworth in September 1908, remaining there until 1915.  In 1908 Sims was elected ARA and shortly afterwards he changed to painting more modern sacred images.  Creatures of myth and legend populated his pastoral paintings in this period.

On the reverse there is a label from a framer Chas. H. West, 117 Finchley Road, Swiss Cottage, N.W. which reads:  Charles Sims/Lodsworth/Petworth/Sussex/No. 2, ”Ephemera”

The following entry appears in Sims’ studio diary for 1908:

“Ephemera.  24 x 20 tempera. RA 1909.  Sold to Sir Edmund Busk, Sussex Place, Regents Park for £150.”  This must in fact have been Sir Edward Henry Busk of that address, the Vice-Chancellor of London University and a patron of the arts.

We have not been able to trace an image of that tempera painting.  Sims did tend to make studies as his major works took shape.   So it is possible that the work exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1909 was either a study for or a variation of our “Ephemera” of that same year.

Sims’ technique here is similar to that he employed in The Fountain painted in 1908 (Tate Britain).  The model for the main figure here may be the same as for the red-haired girl in The Fountain.