Artists

Horace Mann Livens
British, 1862-1936

Born in Croydon, England but active in London, Horace Mann Livens was a painter of watercolor, portrait, genre, landscape, still life, flowers, and poultry.

 

He studied at the Croydon School of Art and trained under Charles Verlat in Antwerp, Belgium. Returning to England from Antwerp, Livens became a founding member in 1898 of the International Society of Sculptors, Painters and Gravers. 


Livens met and became friendly with Vincent Van Gogh who suggested he study in Paris. He was best known for having painted the earliest recorded portrait of Vincent Van Gogh. Livens consequently traveled to Paris and was influenced by Manet.

Livens has become a lesser-known artist because much of his work was destroyed during the Blitz of World War II and in a fire at a widow’s home in Harrow, England in 1957.

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