The Times/1921/Obituary/Frederick Wedmore

AUTHOR AND CRITIC.

Sir Frederick Wedmore, author and art critic, died on Friday at his residence, White Mill End, Sevenoaks.

Frederick Wedmore was the eldest son of Thomas Wedmore, J.P., of Druid Stoke, near Bristol, and he was born in Clifton in July 1844. He was educated at Lausanne and in Paris, and all his work in fiction and in criticism was full of the influence of France. As art critic and historian, he devoted himself specially to the art of France, from the 18th century to the later 19th, his choice and delicate taste finding here its most congenial matter. The same love of the choice and the exquisite early inclined him to the study of etching. He came just at the time when Whistler, Haden, and others, inspired by Méryon, were reviving in England the art of "painter-etching"; his championship of the young Society of Painters-Etchers through difficult periods won him the rare distinction of being chosen an Honorary Fellow of that body. But he knew much about many periods and styles of art. For 30 years he worked regularly as art critic of the Standard, and the charm of his writing was even more widely known than was the little dapper figure, with the elegant, inquisitive eyeglass familiar at all Press and private views.

His fiction, like his figure, was slight, but exquisite. The "Pastorals of France," "Orgens of Miradou," and other tales are very minutely and beautifully worked, in the best French fashion; and, if Wedmore's interest in the drama was too meticulous to be easily digested into his theatrical novel "Brenda Walks on, "his knowledge and memory of French and English plays and acting made his conversation on the drama well worth hearing. He had more energy than would be guessed from his appearance and manner, He lived much in the world, and "knew everybody." He lectured well and often, in America and England. He wrote pretty frequently in the Nineteeth Century.He edited art books, and (with the assistance of his daughter) an anthology of "Poems of the Love and Pride of England." He catalogued Whistler's etchings; he wrote on Balzac, and a very entertaining volume, full of delicate malice, on his own life and memories. In the New Year's Honours of 1912 he was given a knighthood.

Lady Wedmore, who is the youngest daughter of the late John Peele Clapham, J.P., of Wharfedale, is at present ill in Devonshire.