Private
Edward Halliday
(1902 - 1984)
Self-portrait in the Studio, c. 1920
Sold
Edward Halliday (1902 - 1984)
Size:
Height – 21.6cm
Width – 28cm
Literature: Llewellyn, Sacha, and Paul Liss. Portrait of an Artist. Liss Llewellyn, 2021, p.193.
Edward Irvine Halliday was born on 7 October 1902 at Garston, Liverpool to parents James Halliday and Violet Irvine. He first attended Liverpool College of Art. Halliday continued his studies and attended life drawing classes at Académie Colarossi (1922‚Äì1923), the Royal College of Art (1923‚Äì1925), and the British School at Rome (1925‚Äì1928). He was awarded the Prix de Rome for Decorative Painting in 1925. He established himself as a portrait artist with his work, Lord Darling (1928).
During World War II, Halliday served in the Royal Air Force in Bomber Command. After the war in 1948, he received a painting commission for a portrait of Princess Elizabeth from the Drapers’ Company of London. This was the start of many more royal portrait commissions. Other sitters for Halliday’s portraits included Winston Churchill, Edmund Hillary, Lord Denning, Lord Widgery, Louis Gluckstein, Robert Stopford, Lord Hunt, Frank Whittle, Malcolm Sargent, Leon Goossens, Beryl Grey, Gladys Cooper, Wally Hammond, Brian Johnston, and Ben Travers.
Halliday had two arts series radio programs, Artists at Work (1932) and Design in Modern Life (1934). After the success of these radio programs, it led to further radio and television work. In the 1950s, Halliday was the voice behind the BBC Television Newsreel.
Painter in oil and watercolour mainly of portraits. Born in Liverpool, Halliday studied at the City School of Art there, in Paris at the Atelier Colarossi and at the Royal College of Art. He was awarded the Prix de Rome and worked at the British School there. Exhibited at RA, RBA, Paris Salon and RP, of which for a time he was president. His work is in the collections of HM The Queen, Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool, the Athenaeum Club, Wolverhampton Royal Hospital and Bootle Dyeworks. His work was reproduced in The Studio, Illustrated London News and The Times and he was interviewed by Stanley Casson for his book Artists at Work, published in 1933. In 1997, the University of Liverpool held an exhibition which concentrated on Halliday’s efforts to popularise art between the wars. Halliday’s daughter Charlotte is also an artist. He lived in London.
