Sir Edward John Poynter ARA, RA, PRA
Born 20 March 1836
Died 26 July 1919
Active: 1852 - 1919
Country of birth: France
Country of death: England
Painter, sculptor, teacher, headmaster of art school, museum director
Born in Paris. He was the only son of Ambrose Poynter (1796–1886), architect and painter in watercolours. Edward's mother Emma Forster (1800–1848), was an artist and granddaughter of the sculptor Thomas Banks (1735–1805). Studied in England from 1852 and at the Ecole des Beaux Arts, Paris, under Gleyre from 1856 to 1859. Became an Associate of the Royal Academy in 1869, a full Academician in 1876 and served as President from 1896-1918 following the death of Sir John Everett Millais.
Poynter was the first Slade professor at University College, London in 1871-5, then Director of Art at the National Art Training Schools, South Kensington July 1875-August 1881 and subsequently an Art Referee. From April 1894 to 1904 Poynter was Director of the National Gallery, the last artist to hold this position, and was responsible for the display and opening of the Tate Gallery in 1897. He died at 70 Addison Road, Kensington, and was buried in St Paul's Cathedral, London, on 30 July. A studio sale of Poynter's work was held at Christie's on 19 January 1920.
Information from Forrer, vol. 4, (1909), p. 678; Alison Inglis, ODNB; Anthony Burton, 'Vision and Accident: the Story of the Victoria and Albert Museum', London, 1999, p. 130 (and other references).
Wealth at death: £20,608 13s. 2d.
Probate date: 5 September 1919
Institutional and Business Connections
Committee member of War Memorials Committee (Royal Academy of Arts), 1918
1918
Lectured at Royal Academy Schools
1 March 1884 - 3 March 1884
Delivered two lectures on sculpture in March 1884. See Royal Academy. \'Annual Report, 1884\', (1885), p. 60.
Member of council Royal Academy of Arts
1877 - 1894
Served as a \'Member of the Council\' from 1877 to 1878, from 1885 to 1886, and from 1893 to 1894. See Royal Academy \'Annual Reports\'.
Principal of Slade School of Fine Art
September 1871 - June 1876
Listed as Professor of Fine Art.
Principal of Royal College of Art (including National Art Training School)
1875 - 1881
Listed as Principal. See 'List of Staff' in the 'Report of the Departmental Committee on the Royal College of Art' (1911), p. 60. See also 'Appendix II. Previous Heads of the Royal College of Art' in the College's 1939-1940 Prospectus. Poynter was successor to Richard Redgrave who held the post of the Department of Science and Art's Inspector for Art.
A letter from F. R. Sandford to the Department of Science and Art (2 September, 1881), records Poynter's resignation. The letter states that 'he [Poynter] finds that he cannot continue to devote as much time to his public duties as they now require, consistently with due attention to his work as an Artist, which it was always understood that he should prosecute after he joined the staff of the Department'. The letter also records that Poynter had held the following posts: 'Principal of the Art Training School', 'Director of Instruction in the Art Schools and Classes, and in the Elementary Schools throughout the United Kingdom', 'Adviser to the Department on all matters connected with the Art Branch of the South Kensington Museum and the purchases to be made for it', and 'Chief Executive Officer of the Art Division'. In 1881 Poynter's salary was £890.
Visitor at Royal Academy Schools
1870 - 1876 (Presumed)
Listed variously as a visitor to the Life School and to the School of Painting from 1870-1871. Poynter visited the Life School again in 1876. See Royal Academy \'Annual Reports\'.
Visitor at Royal College of Art (including National Art Training School)
1881 - 1895 (Presumed)
A letter from F. R. Sandford to the Department of Science and Art (2 September, 1881), records that Poynter was 'willing to continue, for the present, to give them the benefit of his advice and assistance as Visitor of the Art Training School; charged with the general supervision of the course of studies in the School, in which he will be associated with the new Director'.
Poynter resigned as Visitor in 1895. See a letter dated 27 March, 1895, National Archives, London, ED 23/29.
Visitor at Slade School of Fine Art
September 1891 - July 1919
Last listed as a visitor in the 1918-1919 prospectus.
Personal and Professional Connections
Taught William Blake Richmond
See Forrer, vol. 5, (1912), p. 118. No dates are given.
Descriptions of Practice
Listed under Sculptors Biographical Dictionary of Medallists, Coin, Gem, and Seal-Engravers, Mint Masters, &c., Ancient and Modern with References to their Works, B.C. 500 - A.D. 1900, Volume IV, 1909 Biographical Dictionary of Medallists
Listed as a contemporary painter and sculptor. Forrer notes that the artist exhibited two sets of designs for the 'Third Coinage of Queen Victoria' in 1893, and that 'two types of reverses for the Florin and Shilling' were adopted and in use until 1901. Poynter also designed the 'Ashantee War Medal', and produced portrait medallions in 1882 and 1883. The artist exhibited at the second exhibition of the Society of Medallists, at the Dutch Gallery, London, in 1901. Forrer cites a number of sources including M. H. Spielmann's 'British Sculpture and Sculptors of to-day' (1901). See Forrer, vol. 4, (1909), pp. 678-680.
Sources
Letter re: the resignation of Edward John Poynter, 2 September, 1881
2 September 1881
pp. 1-5.
Letter referring to the appointment of Visitors to the National Art Training School, 27 March, 1895
27 March 1895
pp. 1-2.
Minutes of Evidence taken before the Committee on the National Art Training School, 19 November, 1888
19 November 1888
pp. 1-37.
Oxford Dictionary of National Biography
2004
Alison Inglis, ‘Poynter, Sir Edward John, first baronet (1836–1919)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004; online edn, May 2010 [http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/35600, accessed 21 Feb 2012]
Prospectus of the Royal College of Art, 1939-1940 Royal College of Art
1939
p. 36.
Report of Committee of Inquiry on National Art Training School [sic], 1889
16 July 1889
pp. 1-12.
Report on the National Art Training School, 1881
December 1881
p. 7.
Royal College of Art Calendar and Prospectus, 1949-1950 Royal College of Art
1949
pp. 26-27.
University College London. Calendar. Session 1871-1872
1871
p. 160.
University College London. Calendar. Session 1875-1876
1875
p. 44.
University College London. Calendar. Session 1891-1892
1891
p. 81.
University College London. Calendar. Session 1892-1893
1892
p. 79.
University College London. Calendar. Session 1893-1894
1893
p. 79.
University College London. Calendar. Session 1918-1919
1918
p. 83.
Citing this record
'Sir Edward John Poynter ARA, RA, PRA', Mapping the Practice and Profession of Sculpture in Britain and Ireland 1851-1951, University of Glasgow History of Art and HATII, online database 2011 [http://sculpture.gla.ac.uk/view/person.php?id=msib4_1239117485, accessed 28 Feb 2021]
