A vintage push-fit jigsaw, 430pc 13x16in, probably cut in the 1920s. It has 2 replacements and some rather heavy-handed touching up that is a bit shiny. Three young girls and a pair of dogs play piggy-back or pick-a-back, a pair of dogs join in the fun and the skipping rope lies abandoned. The painting is by Arthur J Elsley.
Arthur John Elsley (1860 – 1952) was an English painter of the late Victorian and Edwardian periods, famous for his idyllic genre scenes of playful children and their pets. He achieved great popularity during his life and his prints were used commercially by many firms such as calendars by Thomas D. Murphy Co., Sunlight Soap, Brook’s Sewing Cottons, Peek Freans biscuits & cakes; and Bibby’s Quarterly.
Born in London, one of six children of John Elsley, a coachman and amateur artist who was forced to retire by tuberculosis. When only eleven years old, Arthur was producing animal studies made at London Zoo in Regent’s Park. He enrolled in the South Kensington School of Art but his eyesight was permanently damaged by a bout of measles. From 1876-1882 he was a probationer at the Royal Academy Schools, exhibiting his first picture, "A Portrait of an Old Pony" at the RA in 1878. Sketches made on frequent cycling trips around the countryside provided material for his later paintings.
He took commissions for portraits of children, dogs and horses, many from the Benett-Stanford family of politicians living at Preston Manor in Brighton. In 1876 Elsley shared a studio with George Grenville Manton, through whom he met Frederick Morgan, a popular painter of children. In 1889 Elsley moved into Morgan’s studio painting the animals in Morgan’s portraits. Elsley married his second cousin and model Emily Fusedale in 1893 and set up his own studio, although he continued to work with Frederick Morgan. In 1892 his painting "I’se Biggest" (a young girl measuring herself against a St. Bernard dog) was a runaway success and had to be re-engraved to satisfy public demand. The Illustrated London News printed one of Elsley’s paintings, Grandfather’s Pet as their Christmas choice for 1893.
After the death of Charles Burton Barber (1845–1894), Elsley became his natural successor as the foremost painter of children and their pets. His relationship with Morgan soured after which his compositions, all studio works, became more complex. The First World War severely reduced Elsley’s output of paintings. He contributed to the war effort by working on bomb-sites in a munitions factory, straining his already poor eyesight. By the early 1930s he was able only to carry out woodworking and gardening. Arthur John Elsley died at home in Tunbridge Wells on 19 February 1952.
