Explore: Charles Wellington Furse

(1868 - 1904)

Charles Wellington Furse was born in Staines, Middlesex. He was the son of a clergyman, who became Canon and Archdeacon of Westminster in 1894. He entered the Slade School of Art in London at the age of 16, where he became one of the favourite pupils of Alphonse Legros. From 1887 he studied at the Académie Julian in Paris, returning to London the following year to enrol at the Westminster School of Art. Furse exhibited his work at the Royal Academy, Society of Portrait Painters and the New English Art Club. In 1898 he travelled to Italy to view the galleries and churches of Florence and Siena with collector and historian Herbert Horne. Furse married Katherine Symonds (1875-1952) in 1900. He died at his home in Surrey at the age of just 36.