John Dickson Batten (British artist) 1860 - 1932
John Dickson Batten (British painter, book illustrator and print maker) 1860 - 1932 Born at Plymouth, the son of a QC, Batten went to Trinity College, Cambridge, and entered the Inner Temple in 1884. However, he soon abandoned law for art, studying at the Slade under Legros and exhibiting at the Royal Academy (1891-1922), the Grosvenor Gallery and the New Gallery, and with the Arts and Crafts Exhibition Society, etc. He is chiefly remembered for his illustrations to the books of fairy tales edited by Joseph Jacobs and published by David Nutt in the 1890s; for his colour-woodcuts in the Japanese style; and as one of the leading exponents of the tempera and fresco revival. He was a founder-member of the Society of Painters in Tempera (1901), its Secretary for twenty years, and Hon. Secretary of the Art Workers' Guild between 1903-8. Lived in London, latterly at Kew.
