Alfred Augustus Glendening Senior

19th Century landscape oil painting of swans on a river

1896

British painter Alfred Augustus Glendening, Sr. captured luminous, sunlit scenes in striking landscape paintings of his native country during the 19th century.

Glendening is believed to have been born in Greenwich around 1840. Although it is unknown whether or not he received any formal artistic training, he dedicated his life to becoming a painter after leaving his post as a railway clerk.

The expansive British Isles — from the English countryside and rolling Welsh hills to the dramatic mountains of Scotland — served as Glendening’s muse. He traveled extensively throughout Britain, capturing scenes of the River Thames, the southern counties of Surrey and Sussex and the lochs of the Scottish Highlands. 

In addition to his landscape paintings and figurative works, Glendening’s oeuvre includes numerous animal paintings that feature pastoral landscapes dotted with cattle, sheep and deer, as well as tranquil scenes of ponds and streams with ducks and swans. His use of color and focus on accurately depicting natural light — characteristics that are typical of Impressionist art — are comparable to that of another well-known British landscape painter, Alfred de Bréanski, Sr. 

Glendening received broad attention and recognition for his works. From 1865 to 1903, Glendening’s paintings were exhibited at the Royal Academy of Arts, the Royal Society of British Artists, the Walker Art Gallery in Liverpool and the Manchester Art Gallery, to name a few. His son, Alfred Augustus Glendening, Jr., studied landscape painting under his father and was a well-known artist in his own right. 

Today, Glendening’s paintings are highly sought by collectors of Victorian art and landscapes.

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