Explore: Keith Stuart Baynes

(1887 - 1977)

Born in Reigate, Surrey, Keith Stuart Baynes was educated at Harrow School and the University of Cambridge. He lived in France at the beginning of the twentieth century during which time he visited Holland and saw work by Van Gogh for the first time. This and examples of other modern European art, inspired him to enrol to study at the Slade School of Art (1912–14), when he returned to London. During the First World War, Baynes became acquainted with the English painter W.S. Sickert and later associated with the circle of artists influenced by the critic and painter, Roger Fry, best known for his organisation of the first exhibitions of French Post-Impressionism in London. These were an impetus for many British artists including David Bomberg and William Roberts, contemporaries of Baynes at the Slade. Baynes also exhibited alongside Duncan Grant and Vanessa Bell, of the Bloomsbury Group. He travelled extensively around Europe for most of his life, painting landscapes and views particularly in England, France and Portugal.