Paul Ayshford Methuin , 4th Baron Methuin (1886-1974) was a zoologist , painter and landowner . He was the eldest child of the 3rd Baron Methuin and his second wife , Mary Ethel. He was educated at Eton and New College,Oxford where he studied zoology and engineering .
From 1910 to 1914 he worked in the Transvaal Museum in Pretoria , where he published several scientific papers with the South African herpetologist , John Hewitt , with whom he collected and described a number of southern African and Madagascan genera and species in the early 20th century. He later refused a chair in zoology in a South African university because of his commitment to his ancestral home .
In the First World War he served with the Royal Wiltshire Yeomanry and then with his father's regiment , the Scots Guards. He married Eleanor Hennessy , daughter of the landscape painter William James Hennessy , in 1915.
Methuin had studied drawing at Eton , at the Ruskin in Oxford , and with Charles Holmes . In 1927 he attended art classes given by Walter Sickert , which had a permanent effect upon his painting style. He established a reputation as a serious artist .
In 1939 he rejoined his regiment and served as a captain until 1944 when he was moved to the Procurement and Fine Art branch set up to protect works of art during the invasion of the continent . He later recounted his experiences in his book ' Normandy Dairy '
No comments:
Post a Comment