John Byam Liston Shaw

John Byam Liston Shaw (13 November 1872 – 26 January 1919), commonly known as Byam Shaw, was a British painter, illustrator, designer and teacher. He is not to be confused with his sons, Glen Byam Shaw, actor and theatre director, and James Byam Shaw, art historian and director of Colnaghi's, who both used "Byam Shaw" as a surname.

Family John Byam Liston Shaw was the son of John Shaw and his wife, Sophia Alicia Byam Gunthorpe. In 1899, Byam Shaw married the artist, Evelyn Caroline Eunice Pyke-Nott, later known as Evelyn CE Shaw (1870–1959). Evelyn's sister was Isabel Codrington, another early twentieth century artist. Byam Shaw came from an Ayrshire family of lawyers and clerics. The Ayrshire Shaws were a cadet branch of the Shaws of Tordarroch, chiefs of the Clan Shaw. Byam Shaw's forebears included the two reverend Shaws (father and son) referred to in Burns' "Twa Herds". Evelyn's family, the Pyke-Notts, were gentry from Swimbridge and Parracombe in North Devon.

The couple had five children including the actor and theatre director Glen Byam Shaw and the art historian James 'Jim' Byam Shaw. Their only daughter, Barbara, married Rear-Admiral A.F. Pugsley. Another son, David, a naval officer and destroyer captain, awarded the OBE, was killed at sea during World War II while in command of HMS Stanley, and George, a major in the Royal Scots, was killed at Dunkirk in 1940 while second-in-command of the 1st Battalion. The family is depicted in the artist's semi-autobiographical pastel painting My Wife, My Bairns and My Wee Dog John (1903). The family returned to England in 1878 where they settled in Kensington, living at 103 Holland Row. He showed early artistic promise, and in 1887 his work was shown to John Everett Millais, who recommended that the 15-year-old should enter the St John's Wood Art School. There, he first met fellow artists Gerald Fenwick Metcalfe (also born in India) and Rex Vicat Cole. He also met Evelyn Pyke-Nott, his future wife, there. From 1890, Shaw studied at the Royal Academy Schools He exhibited frequently at Dowdeswell and Dowdeswell's gallery in New Bond Street, where he had at least five solo exhibitions between 1896 and 1916. He taught at the Women's Department of King's College London from 1904 Evelyn Shaw had an active role in the new school, teaching the miniatures class, her area of expertise. The Call, an illustration by Byam Shaw for Canada in Khaki, published in 1917. At the outbreak of the First World War Byam Shaw and Vicat Cole enlisted in the Artists Rifles although Shaw soon transferred to the Special Constabulary. He produced war cartoons that were published in many newspapers and also found work with memorial commissions. An ornate red, green and gilt monument to his life, in a 15th-century style, still stands there.

Notable works

Paintings Jezebel (1896 – Russell-Cotes Art Gallery & Museum, Bournemouth). The painting, exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1896, originally depicted Jezebel nude, flanked by her hand-maidens. The model was Rachel Lee, a close friend of Byam Shaw. Unable to sell the painting, he later reworked it so that the central figure was shown clothed. ). The subtitle for this painting referring to the Second Boer War (1899–1902) is 'Last summer green things were greener, brambles fewer, the blue sky bluer', a Christina Rossetti quote. . – 500 plates. – these illustrations form some of Byam Shaw’s more famous ones. . – commissioned to produce 34 illustrations. . .

Other works Designed costumes for Beerbohm Tree's Much Ado About Nothing at His Majesty's Theatre (1904). Assisted Edwin Austin Abbey in the scheme to decorate one of the corridors in the Palace of Westminster with murals. Act Drop for the London Coliseum (1914). No longer in existence, the curtain Byam Shaw designed for the Coliseum featured Shakespeare presiding over a court of 101 diverse figures including Gainsborough and Elgar. Stained glass for St Barnabas Church, Kensington.