Arthur Meade

Arthur Meade (1864-1942) was born in Somerset. Initially a traditional painter of landscapes, he also painted portraits and figures, and became particularly well known for painting bluebell woods in Lelant and around Cornwall, earning the nickname “Bluebell Meade”.

Meade’s painted landscapes were among his best known works. ‘Low Tide on the Bar’ shows a rainbow reflected in the pools of water on the sands at Hayle, and ‘The Merry Springtime’, the first of his well-known bluebell-bedecked woodland scenes, was his greatest success. It was described on Show Day in 1905 as “a dream of colour” and won him an award at the Carnegie International Exhibition in Pittsburgh in 1907.

Meade enjoyed considerable success at the Royal Academy from 1894 to 1901. He had twenty-two works accepted by the Royal Academy, and in some years he had as many as five works hung.

Text: Ben Crack