Bernard Walter Evans (26 December 1843 – 26 February 1922) was a British landscape painter and watercolourist in the Romantic style, working mainly in Birmingham, Wales, London, Cannes and the North Riding of Yorkshire. Because he used a "heavy, cumbrous" horse-drawn van to reach remote sites in Yorkshire, his nickname there was Van Evans, and he was recognisable with his wideawake hat, pipe and neckerchief. He was known for his arduous days of painting in the hard Yorkshire winters, with frozen water pots, little food, and only a paraffin stove to warm his hands.
Evans was the son of an engraver, and four of his siblings were artists. He began his apprenticeship at seven years old with Samuel Lines. He studied under George Wallis at the Birmingham School of Art and then with Edward Watson at the School of Landscape Art. He married Mary Ann Eliza Hollyer, sister of Frederick Hollyer, and one of his cousins was George Eliot. Evans was elected a member of the Royal Society of British Artists and the Savage Club, and he was for many years a member of the Royal Institute of Painters in Water Colours.
Background
Bernard Walter Evans was born in Queen Street, Wolverhampton, Staffordshire England, on 26 December 1843. He was the second son of Walter Swift Evans (Birmingham c.1819 – 1886), who was an engraver on gold and silver, a copper plate engraver, and a church furniture-maker. His mother was Sophia née Spilsbury (b. Wolverhampton c.1819). Evans' parents married in 1841 and had thirteen children, of whom five were artists. The artist siblings included: Edmund William Evans (1848–1908), Francis Michael Evans (1858–1937), Helen Mary Evans (1859–1947) and Wilfred Godric Evans (1860–1912). George Eliot was their cousin.
At St Luke's Church, Kentish Town, on 2 August 1870 Evans married Mary Ann Eliza Hollyer (Bloomsbury c.1832 – Knaresborough 1902), the daughter of an engraver and sister of Frederick Hollyer, and they lived in London, and at 20 Park Parade, Harrogate, to which they moved in the 1890s, and Evans stayed in Harrogate until around 1911. At St Catherine's Catholic Church, Frome, on 29 October 1904, Evans remarried to Mary Agnes Howard, daughter of Joseph Howard of Frome. Evans died at the home of his niece, in Bedford Park, London, on 26 February 1922, and was buried at Harlow Hill Cemetery, Harrogate, North Riding of Yorkshire, on 2 March 1922, alongside his wife Mary Ann Eliza.
Training and career
Evans started studying art under Samuel Lines in Birmingham when he was seven years old, and there he "made copies of landscapes and ruins from the drawings of that artist". He then studied under George Wallis at Birmingham School of Art, and from the age of nineteen in 1863 he studied under Edward Watson (died c.1920) at his School of Landscape Art. There he won several prizes of three guineas each (), which were spent on sketching tours in the Mawddach Estuary near Barmouth, North Wales. His father also supported his sketching tours financially. At that point in his life, Evans was receiving commendations from Edward Watson and Frederick Henry Henshaw for his work.
Evans was a landscape painter, watercolourist, and draughtsman, who "was associated with Pugin in the revival of medieval architecture", through his father Walter Swift Evans. W.S. Evans assisted Pugin in carrying out designs within the Houses of Parliament. In 1864 when B. W. Evans was 21 years old, he moved to London and "made a name for himself as a landscape artist", although he worked in the Birmingham area for much of his life. Many of Evans' landscapes were painted in Yorkshire, North Wales and the Midlands, although he and his wife spent several 1890s winters on the French Riviera where Evans painted landscapes near Cannes.
In 1880 Evans was elected to membership of the Royal Society of British Artists. He was a "driving force behind the creation" of the City of London Society of Artists in 1880, and he was elected a member of the Savage Club in 1881. He attended the first annual dinner of the Guild of Arts and Letters in London in March 1886. From 1887 until his death he was a member of the Royal Institute of Painters in Water Colours.