Arthur Joseph Meadows was born in Mile End in the East End of London in 1843. The youngest child, he lived with his parents until his father's death in 1863. He then continued to live in the neighbouring streets off Bow Road in close proximity to his mother and his sister Ann and her family, until 1868.
One interesting vignette of the young Arthur that has survived was as a member of a Mile End amateur dramatic society, 'The Pickwick Histrionic Club', which appeared at the Beaumont Institution in Beaumont Square (where the Meadows family lived at the time). Arthur appeared in a drama called, 'All that glitters is not gold', and the critic of 'The Players' Magazine noted in his review of the evening that, "Mr A.J.Meadows as Lady Leatherbridge was also exceedingly good" , perhaps showing some of his father's and grandfather's dramatic talent.
Arthur Meadows married Laura Louise Harrison (born c.1844) at Islington Parish Church in 1864. Arthur and Laura had ten children, of whom three were born in Bow. The seven younger children were all born in Dover, where the family lived from 1869 until the 1880s, firstly at Charlton House, and later in Eastbrook Terrace. James Meadows trained his son Arthur as an artist, and Arthur was apparently determined to pass on the family tradition and talent: in the 1881 census, the entry for each of his three eldest children, including Gordon Arthur Meadows, was "scholar and art pupil". By 1891, the family had returned to London, and was living in Summerhill Road in Tottenham. At the time of the 1901 census, the family had moved once again, to Portland Road in Notting Hill. Arthur Meadows died here in 1907. After Arthur's death, Laura is recorded in the 1911 census living with her daughters in Addison Road, Notting Hill, "letting appartments". In 1916 Laura lived in St John's Road in Golders Green.
Whilst Arthur Meadows very firmly followed the family tradition as an artist, he differed from his elder brothers by concentrating almost exclusively on marine painting. Unlike his brothers James Edward and Edwin, he does not appear to have drawn inspiration from the Essex countryside, but from the south coast of England where he lived for many years, the Dutch ports, and from the coasts and rivers of France and Italy, including the canals of Venice. The choice of continetal subjects resulted in bright, sunny, colourful paintings which earned him great success in his own lifetime, and have ensured an enduring reputation after his death as the most successful Meadows artists. Arthur Meadows exhibited at the Royal Academy in London for the first time in 1863, and subsequently his works were exhibited at the Royal Hibernian Academy of Arts in Dublin, and at the British Institute and the Suffolk Street gallery of the Society of British Artists in London. An example of his work is in the collections of the National Maritime Museum in Greenwich.
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