Biographies

Harold Speed (1872 – 1957) He was born in London, the son of Edward Speed, an architect. He began to follow his father’s path, studying architecture at the Royal College of Art but changed to the Royal Academy Schools, where he studied from 1891 to 1896. He won a gold medal and a travelling scholarship in 1893, which allowed him to travel extensively in Europe. He lived and worked in London, where his work was frequently exhibited, and in Oxfordshire. And he wrote about the technique of painting. Stephen Sweeney said this about Speed recently on the Web: The two , if you will, of the studio in which I received most of my training were both written by Harold Speed — and . [Dover editions of both are available from Amazon.com.] bibles The Practice and Science of Drawing Oil Painting Techniques and Materials They are, simply, exactly what the titles say they are, but in such remarkable depth — informative, instructive, thought-provoking — without a single superfluous sentence, remark, or observation, that they could sustain a multi-year study of the subjects. I know extraordinarily competent artists who would consider themselves negligent (and foolish) not to revisit these books periodically, as only the intervening periods of hands-on experience will fully illuminate all that is presented by the author.