Arthur Gerald Ackermann was a British watercolour painter who found inspiration in nature and consistently looked to still life and the sweeping green landscapes of Great Britain. While his style is more typical of the 19th century than when he was actively painting, his subjects were drawn directly from his own surroundings.
Arthur Gerald Ackermann was a British watercolour painter, born on 13th February 1876 in Blackheath, London. Through his father’s side, the family business was in art dealing. Ackermann’s was a prominent gallery across central London that had been founded by Gerald Ackermann’s grandfather Rudolph in 1792. His father Arthur Ackermann had inherited the business.
Gerald Ackermann’s early art education was comprehensive, studying at the New College in Eastbourne as well as Heatherley’s and Westminster School of Art in London. Between 1896 and 1901 he was a student at the Royal Academy Schools, where he won the Creswick Prize in 1900 and was also awarded the Landseer Scholarship.
During World War I, Gerald Ackermann enlisted in the Artists Rifles amongst many of his artistic contemporaries and by 1917 he was a part of the Army Education Corps.
Between 1893 and 1954 Gerald Ackermann exhibited his works annually at the Royal Academy Summer Exhibition.
He was elected to the Royal Institute of Painters in Watercolours in 1912 and became a full member of the society in 1914. His solo shows included exhibitions at the Leicester Galleries and the Fine Art Society.
Gerald Ackermann found inspiration in nature and consistently looked to still life and the sweeping green landscapes of Great Britain. While his style is more typical of the 19th century than when he was actively painting, his subjects were drawn directly from his own surroundings. After settling in Blakeney in the 1930’s his work favoured the countryside in which he lived, often featuring the Norfolk coast, town and landscape. He died nearby in Kelling, survived by a sister Ethel Violet Scully (née Ackermann).
