By Harry Nuttall
Local Historian
DARWEN’S finest artist, James Hargreaves Morton, was a highly renowned Post-Impressionist whose life was tragically cut short when he was killed in the closing days of the Great War.
He left behind hundreds of oil paintings, watercolours, pastels and drawings which were kept safe by his sisters.
“I’ll be back,” he told them. But, of course, he never returned...
The collection was discovered when his last surviving sister, Alice, died in 1967 at her home in Barley Bank Street. Four years later most of them were sold at auction. No one kept a record of the purchasers. But, over the last 50 years, examples of his work have been cropping up.
More than 20 oils have been gathered in by Hans Lowe, director of Cavalier Carpets, Blackburn, who lives in the Ribble Valley. And he has loaned the lot to Darwen Heritage Centre who are staging the first major exhibition of Morton’s work in East Lancashire for over 50 years.
Says Hans: “I read about the success of the Heritage Centre over the past few years and thought it was time to display my collection for local folk to appreciate just how good an artist he was.”
The impressive display, curated by Heritage Centre secretary Albert Gavagan and his wife Sue, fills the large front exhibition room. There are free leaflets and a selection of postcards displaying the oil paintings.
Says Sue: “The last local exhibition of Morton’s work would have been just before the 1971 auction in the Windsor Hall at Blackburn. Everything was sold and there has never been another opportunity since for local historians to gather and display a wide selection of Morton’s work. Until now.”
Several “Mortons” are in Darwen Library, bequests to the family’s home town by the terms of Alice’s will. Blackburn Art Gallery and Museum bought several examples at the auction, but, sadly, they are hidden away. Others are proudly displayed in homes of local folk.
And last year, Morton’s magnificent self-portrait, which he painted in 1916 before going off to war and death, was brought back to Darwen by local historian and author Harold Heys.
In 2013 he wrote a biography of JHM with the help of other local historians. He and his neighbour Paul Taylor trawled the North West searching for and photographing examples of Morton’s work for the book.
They found more than 30 at the Clitheroe home of John and Sylvia Wolstenholme, all bought at the 1971 exhibition. Harold bought Old Woman from them for £400 on behalf of the Friends of Darwen Library. It had rather scared the grandchildren, Sylvia admitted.
He had kept in touch with members of the Morton family and, thanks to a donation of several hundred pounds from the WM and BW Lloyd Trust, he was able to buy the 1916 self-portrait from its owner, a member of the Morton family in Cheshire.
Morton seldom put titles on his work nor did he often date them.
For the auction, a group of local artists led by Albert Hurst was called in to give them names. Most expensive was In the Barn – on show in the exhibition – which sold for £140 (over £2,000 today).
Morton’s reputation is steadily being enhanced. David Ward, a writer on The Guardian, wrote a few years ago: “Morton was no amateur dauber; he was a cotton town Impressionist, in touch with European trends and movements.”
The Morton exhibition runs at Darwen Heritage Centre throughout 2023.
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