William Lee Hankey RWS

William Lee Hankey R.W.S. (1869-1952) RWS,RI,ROI,RE,NS was a British painter and book illustrator. He specialised in landscapes, character studies and portraits of pastoral life, particularly in studies of mothers with young children such as "We’ve Been in the Meadows All Day" He was born in Chester and studied his craft at the Chester School of Art under Walter Schroeder, the Royal College of Art and later in Paris where he became influenced by the work of Jules Bastien-Lepage, who also favoured rustic scenes depicted in a realistic but sentimental style. He first exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1896 and was President of the Royal Sketch Club from 1902 to 1904. . He stayed in France in the early 1900s, painting many of his works in Brittany, Normandy and the Cote d'Azure, capturing a peasant lifestyle which had already disappeared in England.