Biography
Edward Bouverie Hoyton (b. London 1900 - d. 1988) studied at Goldsmiths’ College School of Art, 1918–26, then at British School in Rome, 1926–8. He went on to become principal of Penzance School of Art, 1941–66. With his wife Inez Hoyton, the artist, he was a notable figure in Newlyn art circles and showed widely locally as well as at Royal Academy, Royal Society of British Artists, and elsewhere in the provinces. Hoyton was one of The Goldsmiths’ Group who, in the 1920s, helped to revive the craft of original hand-made prints that had been largely overtaken by mass-production printing methods. Hoyton’s work covered a wide range, from early prints in the manner of Samuel Palmer and F L Maur Griggs – as illustrated in The Studio volume Artists’ Country, by C Geoffrey Holme and G S Sandilands – to abstract etchings of Tresco, in the Isles of Scilly, of the late 1940s. He was also a notable portraitist. In all his work there is strong emphasis on sound draughtsmanship. He had a final show of The Lifetime’s Work at St Ives Society of Artists in 1987.
He and his contemporaries, including Graham Sutherland, Paul Drury, Eric Frazer, Robin Tanner and William Larkins, were inspired by Samuel Palmer whose etchings had been exhibited at the V&A Museum to high acclaim. Bouverie Hoyton won the Rome Scholarship in Engraving on his third attempt in 1926, which led to three years studying printmaking in Italy, but the Wall Street Crash meant he was not able to fully realise his career as an artist. Instead, he turned to graphic design, producing commercial art for companies such as Fortnum and Mason, Standard Cars, Shell Oil, Daimler, Austin Reed and The Radio Times. In 1935 he was appointed as a lecturer of printmaking and art history at Leeds College of Art, where he met his wife Inez and four years later they moved to Cornwall so he could take up the role of Principal at the Penzance School of Art. Bouverie Hoyton injected a new sense of purpose into the college, creating part time adult education classes and bringing in guest lecturers such as John Tunnard, and Bernard Leach, as well as the latter's sons, Michael and David Leach. It was here Bouverie Hoyton was able to reconnect with Barbara Hepworth, whom he had met while they were in Rome and he was introduced to her circle of friends, which included artists Naum Gabo and John Wells. Possibly inspired by his friends in St Ives and the Scilly scenery, Bouverie Hoyton experimented with abstraction, creating geometric landscapes that border on the surreal. In later years, he distanced himself from this stylistic aberration, claiming that it was done simply 'to prove to myself how easy it was', and, by the 1950s, his work had returned to more representational landscape etchings. Among other projects, he produced illustrations for the Holman’s of Camborne calendar which was distributed around the world, and by the 1970s and 80s there was an increased demand for his etchings, especially among North American print collectors.
