Charlie Johnson Payne (1884-1967), known as 'Snaffles'
Charlie Johnson Payne never received any formal artistic training but became one of the leading equestrian artists in the first half of the twentieth century. His work is noted for its accurate draughtsmanship and gentle humour; the latter a reflection of the kind and modest nature of the artist himself.
Christened Charlie, he was born in Leamington on 17 January 1884, the fourth of eight children of boot maker, Ambrose Johnson Payne. An artistic child, he formed, at an early age, not only a lifelong passion for drawing, but also the writings of Rudyard Kipling and a fascination with the military and all things equestrian. The latter he attributed to schoolboy visit to the annual review of the Warwickshire Yeomanry on the Common at Warwick. At the outbreak of the Boer War and aged only fifteen, he tried to enlist, but he was clearly under age and rejected.
His fascination with the Army grew as did his interest in sketching and painting.
At the age of 18 he joined the Royal Garrison Artillery and served three years as a Gunner. After leaving the army and despite having no formal training, he began to make a meagre living as an artist and to sign his work ‘Snaffles’. From 1907, he submitted illustrations of hunting characters to the Bystander magazine and later to The Illustrated Sporting and Dramatic News. By the start of World War I his artistic career had finally become established and his work was in demand.
In 1914, The Graphic sent him as part of a group of freelance artists to record the fighting on the Western Front. This work shows a stronger, more confident line and the accurate detailing for which he became well known. These wartime drawings and watercolours, were widely produced as prints, which were hand-coloured by Snaffles and his two sisters. After returning to England he enlisted in the Royal Naval Air Service, was later commissioned in the RNVR and joined artist Norman Wilkinson’s ‘Dazzle’ team, designing camouflage for the ships patrolling the North Atlantic.
In November 1915 Snaffles married Lucy Lewin, a marriage that would last for over half a century. After the end of the war he travelled abroad and in a series of very poplular works (often humorous) recorded the life of the British Army in India, these included the sporting pastimes of polo and hunting and were sold at the Fores & Co Gallery in Piccadilly.
Returning to England, Snaffles’s illustrations of hunting and country sports became increasingly sought after and he continued to contribute to many magazines including Punch. At the beginning of the second world war he helped design the camouflage of domestic airfields as well as joining the Home Guard. However, after their home, outside Guildford, narrowly missed a being bombed, he and his wife moved to Somerset. Tragically, at the end of the war, in 1945, a firework from the VE celebrations in Taunton destroyed the warehouse containing all of his pre-war sketchbooks, original paintings and prints.
After the war Snaffles and his wife settled in Tisbury in Wiltshire, where he continued to work from a studio, but his eyesight diminished and his artistic production sadly lessened. He died on 30 December 1967 at the age of eighty-three.
