#Painters And Decorators South London

[jrslinteriors]

A Few Things To Remember and Follow When Engaging Top Painters and Decorators

Hiring professional painters and decorators can make a significant difference when it comes to transforming the look and feel of your home or office. Whether you're looking to freshen up the walls with a new coat of paint or completely revamp the interior design, finding the right painters and decorators in South London is crucial. With numerous options available, it can be overwhelming to make the best choice.

However, by considering a few key factors, you can ensure that you hire the best professionals for the job. Here are some important considerations to remember when searching for painters and decorators in South London.

Portfolio and References: Before making a final decision, ask the painters and decorators for their portfolio of preceding projects they have completed successfully. This examination will give you an idea of their style, resourcefulness, and courtesy to detail. Furthermore, don't hesitate to ask for references from past clients. Contacting these references can provide valuable insights into the professionalism, reliability, and overall satisfaction with the services provided by the painters and decorators.

Communication and Competence: Effective communication is essential when working with painters and decorators. Look for professionals who are responsive, concentrating on your requirements, and willing to provide proposals and leadership based on their proficiency. Good painters and decorators will listen to your ideas, offer recommendations, and keep you informed throughout the project. Their professionalism and attention to detail will contribute to a smooth and successful collaboration.

Knowledge and Skillsets: One of the first things to consider when hiring painters and decorators is their experience and expertise. Look for professionals who have been in the industry for several years and have a proven track record of delivering high-quality work. Experienced painters and decorators deeply understand different techniques, materials, and finishes, allowing them to provide exceptional results.

Insurance and Licenses: When hiring painters and decorators, always check if they have proper insurance coverage and the necessary licenses to operate in South London. This ensures that you are protected in case of any accidents or damages that may occur during the painting and decorating process. Licensed professionals are more likely to adhere to safety regulations and follow industry standards, giving you peace of mind throughout the project.

Cost Estimates and Contracts: Obtain detailed cost estimates from multiple painters and decorators in West London. While it can be tempting to go for the lowest bid, keep in mind that quality workmanship is worth the investment. A reputable professional will provide a comprehensive breakdown of costs, including labour, materials, and any additional charges. Moreover, ensure that all the terms and conditions are outlined in a written contract before work begins. This contract should specify the timeline, payment schedule, and any warranties or guarantees the painters and decorators provide.

Services Offered: Clarify the specific services offered by the painters and decorators. Do they specialize in residential or commercial projects? Can they handle both interior and exterior painting? Do they offer additional services like wallpaper installation, plastering, or carpentry? It's essential to ensure that the professionals you hire can cater to your specific needs and requirements.

Reviews and Reputation: Take the time to read online reviews and testimonials about the painters and decorators you are considering. Websites like Trustpilot, Google Reviews, and social media platforms can provide valuable insights into the experiences of past clients. Pay attention to the overall reputation of the professionals, including their punctuality, communication skills, and the ability to meet deadlines.

By considering these key factors when hiring painters and decorators in South London, you can ensure that your project is in capable hands. Remember to prioritize experience, review their portfolio and references, confirm their services and licenses, obtain detailed cost estimates, and assess their reputation and communication skills. With the right professionals, your home or office can be transformed into a beautiful space that reflects your style and personality.

[onlineantiques]

eBay item number 234889246599 William Mainwaring Palin, was born at Hanley, Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire on 6 June and baptised at Stoke Holy Trinity on 25 December 1862, son of William Palin (1818-1888), an engraver, and his wife Hannah née Mainwaring (c1823-1908), who married at Newcastle-under-Lyme, Staffordshire in 1850. Palin was educated at Cobridge Collegiate, Stoke-on-Trent, before undertaking a 5 year apprenticeship with Josiah Wedgwood and Sons, Etruria, Staffordshire and, aged 18, obtained a National Art Training Scholarship at the Royal College of Art. In 1881, an 18 year old figure painter on pottery, living at 54 Lyndhurst Street, Burslem with parents, 62 year old William, potter engraver on copper, and 58 year old Hannah. In the early 1880s he was in Italy and in Paris where he worked under Jules Joseph Lefebvre (1836-1911) and Gustave Boulanger (1824-1888). Between 1893 and 1897, Palin was involved in the decoration of the M’Ewan Hall, Edinburgh, and had been recommended to the Building Committee for the project by the Science and Art Department, South Kensington. William became a member of the Royal Society of British Artists in 1905, acting as Hon. Sec. 1911-1913 and elected vice-president in 1914. He married firstly in 1901, Amy Frances Mansergh (1862-1905), daughter of James Mansergh, F.R.S., Amy died on 9 December 1905, who left the then considerable estate of over £25,000. William married secondly at Fulham, London in 1911, Sarah Jane [Jennie] Dale (6 July 1871-14 April 1948) and in 1939, a retired artist, living at 88 Edge Hill, Wimbledon, Surrey with his wife Sarah, they had a son and a daughter. A painter and decorative artist, exhibiting infrequently at the Royal Academy Summer exhibitions 1892-1915, also at Liverpool Walker Art Gallery, Royal Society of Portrait Painters and elsewhere including Paris Salon and in Chicago, USA. He painted at Walberswick in Suffolk over a ten year period from 1931, every year except one. He died at 88 Edge Hill, Wimbledon, Surrey on 23 July 1947, aged 85. https://www.instagram.com/p/CoYSVmzI8R3/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

[the-paintrist]

Joseph Highmore (13 June 1692 – 3 March 1780) was an English painter of portraits, conversation pieces and history subjects, illustrator and author. After retiring from his career as a painter at the age of 70, he published art historical and critical articles.

Highmore was born in London, the third son of Edward Highmore, a coal merchant, and nephew of Thomas Highmore, Serjeant Painter to William III. He displayed early his ability in art but was discouraged by his family from taking up art professionally, and began a legal training instead. At the ending of a clerkship at the age of 17 (during which he continued to attend a drawing academy run by Godfrey Kneller and lectures on anatomy by William Cheselden), he abandoned his law career and started to work as a portrait painter in London. From 1720 he attended the St Martin’s Lane Academy, where he was exposed to contemporary French art.

On the revival of the Order of the Bath in 1725, he was selected to paint the knights in full costume. In 1732 he visited the Low Countries to study Rubens and van Dyck's works. Two years later he visited Paris where he studied works in public and private collections. In the next few years he received patronage from the royal family, but during the 1740s he began to cater more to middle-class clients who appreciated his ability to capture a likeness in a single sitting and to create an informal composition. In 1762 Highmore sold the contents of his studio and retired to Canterbury, where he lived with his daughter and son-in-law. He subsequently published art historical and critical articles, including on Rubens' ceiling decorations in the Banqueting House, Whitehall, London, colour theory and Brook Taylor's theory of perspective.

Highmore died aged 87 on 3 March 1780. He was buried in sheep's wool (to comply with a 17th-century statute to encourage the wool trade) in the fifth bay of the south aisle of Canterbury Cathedral.

His wife Susanna Highmore (née Hiller) was a poet, though little of her work was published. His son Anthony Highmore (1719–99) was an artist, one of whose 15 children, Anthony Highmore Jnr. (1758–1829), became a writer on legal affairs and a social activist.

Mrs. Freeman Flower, Joseph Highmore, 1747, Art Institute of Chicago: European Painting and Sculpture

Bequest of John and Dorothy Estabrook Size: 36 × 28 in. (91.5 × 71.1 cm) Medium: Oil on canvas

https://www.artic.edu/artworks/70134/

[themuseumwithoutwalls]

MWW Artwork of the Day (11/25/22) Frank Brangwyn (Welsh, 1867-1956) Charity (1900) Oil on canvas, 147.3 x 160 cm. National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa

A painter and graphic artist, Brangwyn studied at South Kensington Art School and worked as a draughtsman for the British designer William Morris between 1882 and 1884. In 1895 Siegfried Bing commissioned him to paint a mural for the "Art Nouveau" boutique in Paris. Brangwyn's style reflects the rhythmic, decorative line favoured by Art Nouveau, while retaining the Symbolist influence of Edward Burne-Jones and the Pre-Raphaelites. His frieze for the ticket hall of the Canadian Grand Trunk Railway office in London, England, completed in 1908, can now be seen in the Ottawa Conference Centre.

[blueiscoool]

A Second-Century Roman Statue With a Piece of Hollywood History 

The marble sculpture stood in a family's back garden as a silent 'protector' for nearly 50 years.

A second-century Roman statue that once belonged to classic film star turned interior decorator William Haines will be offered at Sotheby’s Ancient Sculpture sale in London on December 7 (Sold $99,900). The draped marble figure stood in a California couple’s garden for years before they realized its value as an antiquity or its significance in Hollywood history.

Nearly 50 years ago, the consigners of the work, two doctors from South America, bought a house in Brentwood at a foreclosure auction, after the death of the previous owners in 1973. The property came with a pool, the contents of the garden, and an amazing backstory which they only discovered once the sale closed.

The home’s new owners soon discovered it had been designed by William “Billy” Haines, a film star during the Golden Age of Hollywood, whose career was cut short when he refused to hide his sexuality or his relationship with the love of his life, Jimmie Shields. As a result, Haines was forced to change professions and ended up as an interior designer to other film stars, including Joan Crawford.

Inspired by his story, the new owners chose to keep the house and garden almost exactly as Haines had left it, including the statue of a woman in the garden, which the family came to view as a protector or benevolent presence watching over their lives.

Time went by and the couple decided to have items in the house appraised for sale, only to discover that their “protector” was in fact an ancient Roman sculpture with an estimated value of £100,000 to £150,000 ($135,000 to $202,500) and a fascinating provenance.

The partial marble sculpture of a young woman, known in archaeological terms as a herm of a kore, was discovered in 1769 on one of Rome’s seven hills, by Scottish neoclassical painter and amateur antiquities hunter Gavin Hamilton. He then gifted the statue to the Marquess of Landsdowne and it stayed with the family for two generations before being auctioned in 1930 in London, along with other ancient marbles from the aristocratic collection.

The one mystery is how the statue arrived in Los Angeles and ended up Billy Haines’s garden, although it is assumed he acquired the piece through his work as a successful interior designer and antiques dealer. Haines was known for an eclectic style, combining English furniture with chinoiserie and objects from around the world alongside the Modernist design of the day. And he used his home as a showroom, saying: “This is where I bring my clients… it’s simply the best way to expose them to a certain quality of life as I live it.”

Most of Haines’s possessions were auctioned at Sotheby’s Parke-Bernet in Los Angeles after his death in 1973, but the statue remained with the house. “Billy would have loved to see his things here at Sotheby’s,” a friend told the actor’s biographer during the estate sale. “I think he would have stood in a corner watching to see who came and try to overhear what his friends really thought of his pieces.”

By Amah-Rose Abrams.

[rmsqueenmaryonthisday]

On June 9, 1901, sculptor John Skeaping was born in South Woodford, Essex, England. Skeaping specialized in animal subjects and created "Deer Group" for the RMS Queen Mary, a bas relief of gilt and silvered mahogany (now lost) which decorated the inboard wall of the starboard gallery on the promenade deck. Skeaping, the son of a painter, studied at Goldsmith's College in London, as well as the Central School of Arts and Crafts. He also exhibited with the Royal Academy in 1922 and was awarded the Prix de Rome in 1924.

[londiniumlundene]

Lost London: Walking the Falcon Brook Part 1: The Hydeburn

Note: this walk was completed in early December 2020, before London entered Tier 4 restrictions, and the start of national lockdown in January 2021.

The Falcon Brook is a river of many names; even its most common moniker is varyingly given as Falcon Brook, Falconbrook, or just the Falcon. It is thought to have gained this title from the rising falcon crest of the 16th Century St John family, the lords of Battersea Manor. Prior to this, it bore the names of Hidaburna (or variations thereof) and York Brook. To add to the confusion, there are multiple sources for the river; one rises in Streatham Hill and nowadays takes the name Hydeburn, whilst other principle sources rise around Tootting Bec Common and take the (seemingly interchangeable) names of Streathbourne and Woodbourne. The whole set of streams – now flowing entirely underground – is often just known as the Falcon Brook to simplify matters…

I chose to walk the length of the Falcon Brook from its Hydeburn source, starting up in Streatham Hill in the Leigham Court Estate, an interesting collection of houses, maisonettes and flats, many of which are built with Arts and Crafts design and decoration. The start of the Hydeburn is unclear, though a good guess is a set of ponds which once existed in the grounds of the manor house Leigham Court (which gave the current estate its name); these ponds were just to the south of the estate’s St Margaret the Queen church, which makes for a convenient starting point.

The route of the river then winds through a series of residential streets, with the rush of waters being occasionally heard under drain covers in the centre of mini-roundabouts. The Arts and Crafts residences quickly give way to the more typical “Metroland” type semi-detached house of the early 20th Century; this in turn is superseded by modernist blocks of flats as the river approaches the Streatham Hill road.

Crossing this main road, the river is soon amongst the early 20th Century suburbs again; this is a strong theme for much of the early part of this walk. Some greenery is briefly present when the walk runs along the northern edge of Tooting Bec common, but this is soon replaced by more housing.

Another break comes with the Zennor Road Trade Park, a rather grey industrial estate, soon followed by the slightly more visually appealing La Retraite, a Roman Catholic Girls’ School set up in the 1880s by an order of Nuns from Brittany; the school occupies former housing, once home to painter Philip Alexius de László and music hall comedian Dan Leno. It is more of the same suburbia after this though, with a quick look at Balham High Road as the river’s course cuts across.

It is amongst the houses that the Hydeburn part of this walk reaches its conclusion; around the unremarkable junction of Calbourne Road (a river-related name, though not one used elsewhere on the Falcon Brook’s course) and Mayford Road this length of the subterranean river meets with the Streathbourne/Woodbourne branch. The combined streams now begin a more direct path towards the Thames…

[suzylwade]

Roger Mühl Roger Mühl was a 20th-century French painter best known for his light-drenched landscape renderings of the South of France. Mühl’s paintings often feature built-up impasto surfaces and utilise complimentary colours and neutral tones. Using these techniques Mühl created both atmosphere and physicality in his subtle compositions. Born on December 20, 1929 in Strausbourg, France, he went on to attend the ‘National School of Decorative Arts’ in Strasbourg. He spent most of his life living and working in Provence while exhibiting in London, Paris, Geneva, Tokyo and New York. Mühl died on April 4, 2008 in Mougins, France. #neonurchin #neonurchinblog #dedicatedtothethingswelove #suzyurchin #ollyurchin #art #music #photography #fashion #film #design #words #pictures #french #strausbourgh #nationalschoolofdecorativearts #painter #lightfilled #landscapes #impasto #atmospheric #nicolasdestaël #rogermühl https://www.instagram.com/p/CToiAtHsmRv/?utm_medium=tumblr

[mishinashen]

Boléro violet by Henri Matisse, 1937

Suffused with the brilliant light of the South of France, Boléro violet is an exquisite portrait from one of the most important and creative periods of Matisse’s art. The arrangement of the exotically dressed girl, with her upper body posed diagonally across the painting, is invitingly intimate, with the sweeping arm of her chair creating a subtle distinction between the position of the model and the picture's surface. The emphasis Matisse placed on decorative patterns is particularly apparent in Boléro violet. The buttercup gold and orange striped wallpaper, vivid purple coat and strikingly stylised features of the model - her dark hair and red lips being especially pronounced - combine to create a beguiling vision of the artist’s opulent domain.

The model in the painting is Princess Hélène Galitzine, daughter of Russian aristocrat Prince Serge Galitzine and Helene Ghijitzky. Not yet eighteen years-old when Matisse created Boléro violet, her strikingly dark hair provided a perfect foil to Lydia Delectorskaya’s fair colouration. Throughout 1937 Hélène was one of Matisse’s principal models and posed for a number of important works, often alongside her cousin Delectorskaya. The pair continued to model together for the next couple of years, and posed for the monumental La musique in 1939 (fig. 1). In the same year he completed La musique, Matisse made a statement recognising the importance of his models: ‘The emotional interest aroused in me by them does not appear particularly in the representation of their bodies, but often rather in the lines or the special values distributed over the whole canvas or paper, which form its complete orchestration, its architecture… It is perhaps sublimated sensual pleasure’ (H. Matisse, quoted in Henri Matisse. Figure Color Space (exhibition catalogue), Kunstsammlung Nordrhein-Westfalen, Düsseldorf, 2005, p. 40).

Throughout his life, Matisse approached clothing and textiles with the keen eye of a collector. Costumes of all descriptions could be found in numerous chests about his house and studio. From Romanian peasant clothing to Parisian ball gowns, Matisse’s appetite for clothing was enormous. He commissioned the celebrated designer Paul Poiret’s sister to make dresses for his wife and daughter, and on one occasion in 1938, he spent a day in the area around the rue de la Boëtie in Paris buying several items of haute couture at the spring sales. By the time he moved to his new apartment in the old Excelsior-Regina Palace Hotel in Cimiez in 1939, his collection of costumes required a whole room to store them. As Hilary Spurling has noted: ‘Moroccan jackets, robes, blouses, boleros, caps and scarves, from which his models could be kitted out in outfits distantly descended - like Bakst's ballet, and a whole series of films using Nice locations in the 1920s as a substitute for the mysterious East - from the French painterly tradition of orientalisation’ (H. Spurling, Matisse: His Art and his Textiles (exhibition catalogue), The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 2005, p. 29).

According to Lydia Delectorskaya in 1937 Matisse had become particularly fascinated with a set of Romanian blouses which he rediscovered amongst his studio props. These blouses had been a gift from the Romanian painter Theodor Pallady, who regularly corresponded with Matisse, discussing their art and in particular the important role of its more decorative aspects. Hélène Galitzine was photographed by the artist wearing one of these blouses (fig. 2), and he subsequently painted a number of works - using other models - that used the geometric oak-leaf embroidery as the central decorative motif. Similarly, Matisse produced several improvisations on the decorative qualities of a richly hued jacket decorated with elaborate gold embroidery (fig. 3). Matisse had used this coat in an earlier oil (fig. 4), and echoes of its orientalist charm are reawakened in his paintings in the late 1930s.

In a discussion concerning his working methods with the poet Tériade, which was later published in 1937, Matisse wrote: ‘In my latest paintings, I united the acquisitions of the last twenty years to my essential core, to my very essence. […] The reaction of each stage is as important as the subject. For this reaction comes from me and not from the subject. It is from the basis of my interpretation that I continually react until my work comes into harmony with me... At each stage, I reach a balance, a conclusion. At the next sitting, if I find there is a weakness in the whole, I make my way back into the picture by means of the weakness - I re-enter through the breach-end, I reconceive the whole. Thus everything becomes fluid again and as each element is only one of the component forces (as in an orchestration), the whole can be changed in appearance but the feeling sought still remains the same. A black could very well replace a blue, since basically the expression derives from the relationships. One is not bound to a blue, to a green or to a red, whose timbres can be introverted or replaced if the feeling so dictates… At the final stage the painter finds himself freed and his emotion exists complete in his work' (quoted in Jack Flam (ed.), Matisse on Art, Berkeley, 1995, p. 123).

Discussing Matisse’s portraits of the mid-1930s, John Elderfield wrote: ‘his model is shown in decorative costumes – a striped Persian coat [fig. 5], a Rumanian blouse – and the decorativeness and the very construction of a costume and of a painting are offered as analogous. What developed were groups of paintings showing his model in similar or different poses, costumes, and settings: a sequence of themes and variations that gained in mystery and intensity as it unfolded’ (J. Elderfield in Henri Matisse, A Retrospective (exhibition catalogue), The Museum of Modern Art, New York, 1992, p. 357). Boléro violet is an extraordinary example of Matisse’s constantly evolving perception of form and colour. The paintings of the late 1930s are the supreme outcome of decades of improvisation on these decorative elements, wherein contrasting patterns and colours of the present work harmonise, and the features of the young Hélène are transfigured into the epitome of timeless elegance. The first owner of the present work was Aldus Chapin Higgins of Worcester, Massachusetts. Higgins acquired Boléro violet from Paul Rosenberg’s Paris exhibition of Matisse’s recent works in 1937 which subsequently travelled to London. The previous year Rosenberg persuaded Matisse to sign a three year contract, thus becoming his principal dealer. These exhibitions in Paris and London, held for the next few years, helped the artist to sell directly to a large number of collectors from America and Europe. Aldus C. Higgins was a businessman who spent his entire career with his family’s firm, the Norton Emery Wheel Company. He also invented a water-cooled electric furnace which won the John Scott medal for exceptional achievement in mechanical arts in 1914. Higgins also commissioned the architect Grosvenor Atterbury to build him a house modelled on Compton Wyngates, the Elizabethan seat of the Marquesses of Northampton. The house was completed in 1923, and Higgins and his wife, Mary, lived there until their deaths when it was given to the Worcester Polytechnic Institute, of which his family had been tremendously supportive. Aldus and Mary Higgins were avid collectors of art, and during trips to Europe purchased many wonderful paintings including the magnificent Fauve canvas, L’Oliviers by Georges Braque and Georges Rouault’s Coucher du soleil which were both eventually bequeathed to the Worcester Art Museum. Boléro violet remained in Higgins' family possession until 1990, when it was acquired by the present owner.

[jrslinteriors]

The Benefits of Choosing Painters and Decorators in Chelsea and South London

When it comes to enhancing the aesthetic appeal of your home or commercial space, the role of skilled painters and decorators cannot be overstated. In areas like Chelsea and South London, where architectural brilliance meets modern elegance, the choice of painters and decorators becomes paramount. In this blog, we will explore the myriad benefits of opting for professional services, particularly in Chelsea and South London, where sophistication and style converge seamlessly.

1. Expertise in Chelsea's Artistic Landscape:

Chelsea is renowned for its rich artistic heritage and contemporary lifestyle. Professional painters and decorators Chelsea are well-versed in the local aesthetics, ensuring that your space not only meets but exceeds the standards of this culturally vibrant neighborhood. Their expertise allows them to recommend color palettes and design elements that harmonize with the artistic essence of Chelsea.

2. Personalized Services in South London:

South London, with its diverse communities and architectural styles, demands a personalized touch in painting and decorating. Professional services for painters and decorators South London cater to the unique preferences and styles prevalent, ensuring that your space reflects your personality and complements the local ambiance.

3. Exterior Excellence:

Exterior painters in London, particularly those in Chelsea and South London, understand the significance of creating a lasting first impression. These exterior painters London professionals excel in exterior painting techniques that not only enhance the visual appeal but also protect your property from the unpredictable London weather. The use of high-quality paints and protective coatings ensures longevity and resilience against the elements.

4. Time and Cost Efficiency:

Hiring painters and decorators saves both time and money in the long run. Professionals work efficiently, minimizing disruptions to your routine and completing projects within stipulated timelines. Additionally, their industry connections allow them to source materials at competitive prices, providing cost-effective solutions without compromising on quality.

5. Attention to Detail:

Achieving a flawless finish requires a keen eye for detail. Professional painters and decorators pride themselves on their attention to detail, ensuring that every corner, crevice, and surface is meticulously treated. This level of precision results in a polished and refined outcome that elevates the overall aesthetics of your space.

6. Innovative Design Concepts:

Painters and decorators are abreast of the latest design trends and techniques. Collaborating with exterior painters London professionals opens the door to innovative design concepts that can transform your space into a contemporary masterpiece. Whether it's incorporating textured finishes or experimenting with bold color combinations, professionals bring fresh and imaginative ideas to the table.

Choosing painters and decorators in Chelsea and South London is a strategic investment in the visual appeal and longevity of your property. From capturing the artistic essence of Chelsea to embracing the diverse styles of South London, professional services offer a holistic approach to painting and decorating. So, why settle for ordinary when you can unveil the elegance of your space with the expertise of painters and decorators committed to excellence?

[mia-decorative]

Armchair from a pair of armchairs, Filippo Pelagio Palagi, 1835, Minneapolis Institute of Art: Decorative Arts, Textiles and Sculpture

Arm Chair, Palagio Pelagi, Italian, XIXc cat. card dims 42-1/4 x 26-1/2 x 22' reupholstered in 1993-1994; see file for details This regal armchair was designed by Italian painter, sculptor, interior designer, and collector Filippo Pelagio Palagi for the Castello Racconigi, located south of Turin in northern Italy. Palagi was considered the most important Italian interior designer of the 19th century. He began his career working for Napoleon at the Quirinale Palace in Rome. He moved to northern Italy in 1818 and then to Turin in 1832, where he worked for the royal house of Savoy (later the royal family of unified Italy). In the mid 1830s, Palagi was commissioned to redecorate the interiors of Castello Racconigi, a summer palace of the Savoy family originally built in 1570. There Palagi created his best-known Neoclassical interiors. This pair of armchairs belong to a suite of bedroom furniture that also included a daybed now in the collection of the J. Paul Getty Museum in Los Angeles, a sofa and chairs at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York and a chair at the Victoria & Albert Museum in London. Size: 42 5/8 x 26 1/2 x 22 in. (108.27 x 67.31 x 55.88 cm) Medium: Maple, mahogany (modern upholstery)

https://collections.artsmia.org/art/3492/

[the-paintrist]

Portrait of Henry VIII is a lost work by Hans Holbein the Younger depicting Henry VIII. It was destroyed by fire in 1698, but is still well known through many copies. It is one of the most iconic images of Henry and is one of the most famous portraits of any British monarch. It was originally created in 1536–1537 as part of a mural showing the Tudor dynasty at the Palace of Whitehall, London.

Hans Holbein the Younger, originally from Germany, had been appointed the English King's Painter in 1536. The portrait was created to adorn the privy chamber of Henry's newly acquired Palace of Whitehall. Henry was spending vast sums to decorate the 23-acre (93,000 m2) warren of residences he had seized after the downfall of Cardinal Wolsey. The original mural featured four figures arranged around a marble plinth: Henry VIII, his wife Jane Seymour, and his parents, Henry VII and Elizabeth of York. The mural was thus commissioned sometime during the brief marriage of Henry and Jane Seymour, and was completed in 1537. It may well have been commissioned to celebrate the coming or actual birth of Henry's long-awaited heir, Edward, born in October 1537.

Henry is posed without any of the standard royal accoutrements such as a sword, crown, or sceptre. This was common in progressive royal portraiture of the period, for example the portraits by Titian of the Habsburg family and other royalty, and also French and German royal portraits. But Holbein's success in conveying royal majesty without such specific props is exceptional. The majestic presence is conveyed through Henry's aggressive posture, standing proudly erect, directly facing the viewer. His legs are spread apart and arms held from his side in the pose of a warrior or a wrestler. In one hand he holds a glove, while the other reaches towards an ornate dagger hanging at his waist. Henry's clothes and surroundings are ornate, with the original painting using gold leaf to highlight the opulence. The detailed blackwork embroidery is especially notable. He wears an array of jewellery including several large rings and a pair of necklaces. His large codpiece and heavily padded shoulders further enhance the aggressive masculinity of the image.

The painting has frequently been described as a work of propaganda designed to enhance Henry's majesty. It deliberately skews Henry's figure to make him more imposing. Comparisons of surviving sets of Henry's armour show that his legs were much shorter in reality than in the painting. The painting also shows Henry as young and full of health, when in truth he was in his forties and had been badly injured earlier in the year in a tiltyard accident. He was also already suffering from the health problems that would affect the latter part of his life. It is not clear where in the palace the mural was located, but it may have been in the king's Privy Chamber or study, where only a very select few would have seen it. When fire swept through the palace in 1698, the painting was lost.

The Palace of Whitehall (or Palace of White Hall) at Westminster, Middlesex, was the main residence of the English monarchs from 1530 until 1698, when most of its structures, except notably Inigo Jones's Banqueting House of 1622, were destroyed by fire. Henry VIII moved the royal residence here after the old royal apartments at the nearby Palace of Westminster were themselves destroyed by fire.

White Hall was at one time the largest palace in Europe, with more than 1,500 rooms, overtaking the Vatican, before itself being overtaken by the expanding Palace of Versailles, which was to reach 2,400 rooms. The palace gives its name, Whitehall, to the street located on the site on which many of the current administrative buildings of the present-day British government are situated, and hence metonymically to the central government itself. At its most expansive, the palace extended over much of the area bordered by Northumberland Avenue in the north; to Downing Street and nearly to Derby Gate in the south; and from roughly the elevations of the current buildings facing Horse Guards Road in the west, to the then banks of the River Thames in the east (the construction of Victoria Embankment has since reclaimed more land from the Thames)—a total of about 23 acres (9.3 ha). It was about 710 yards (650 m) from Westminster Abbey.

Hans Holbein the Younger (German: Hans Holbein der Jüngere; c. 1497 – between 7 October and 29 November 1543) was a German painter and printmaker who worked in a Northern Renaissance style, and is considered one of the greatest portraitists of the 16th century. He also produced religious art, satire, and Reformation propaganda, and he made a significant contribution to the history of book design. He is called "the Younger" to distinguish him from his father Hans Holbein the Elder, an accomplished painter of the Late Gothic school.

[louistomlinsoncouk]

He became a bona-fide teen pop superstar as part of One Direction, then suffered unthinkable personal loss. Louis Tomlinson talks to Guy Kelly about fame, family and what comes next.

Louis Tomlinson took part in an online video recently, in which he was tasked with answering the internet’s most-searched questions about him. It was fairly tame, as you might expect of a pop quiz thrown at a pop star. ‘How do you pronounce Louis Tomlinson?’ the first read. There’s an interesting answer to that, actually, but we’ll come to it. ‘How old is Louis Tomlinson?’ was the second. He’s 28. And then came the third. ‘How is Louis Tomlinson?’

In the video, the man himself looks a little bewildered, dismissing the query as ‘random’ before moving on. But underneath, in the YouTube comments – one of the few nooks of the internet where love and goodwill still thrives – a fan repeated it. ‘“How is Louis Tomlinson,”’ they wrote, ‘the only question that matters.’ More than 7,000 people ‘liked’ it.

Given all Tomlinson’s been through in the past four years, it seems reasonable to ask. In 2016, the band he’d been in man and boy, One Direction, went on an indefinite hiatus after six years. Since being welded together by Simon Cowell on The X Factor in 2010, ‘1D’ had enjoyed perhaps the most stratospheric rise in music (five platinum albums, four world tours) since The Beatles. It hadn’t been Tomlinson’s decision to break up the band, and he wasn’t – still isn’t – particularly happy about it.

In December of that year, his beloved mother, Johannah Deakin, died a few months after being diagnosed with leukaemia. She was 43. Tomlinson pressed on with his nascent solo career, but unimaginable tragedy struck again. In March 2019, his 18-year-old half-sister, Félicité, was found unconscious at her flat in London and couldn’t be revived. An inquest later found she had died of an accidental drug overdose. Again, he buckled down, looked after his remaining siblings, and committed himself to finishing his debut album.

Settling down with Tomlinson in the corner of a west London photo studio, then, it seems as good a place as any to start: how is he?

‘I’m good, mate, I’m feeling good,’ he says, spreading his arms across a sofa. After wearing a series of high-end outfits for our photo shoot (‘I never feel super-comfortable on shoots; I’ve got one f—king pose – moody’), he’s in a black ’90s-inspired collared jumper, black trousers and black trainers.

He pushes his fringe to one side. The Doncaster accent, which softened in his 1D days, is back to pure, unfettered South Yorks. It’s all ‘in t’band’, ‘I didn’t know owt’, and swearing like a navvy. He’s honest, funny, and if his feet were planted any more firmly on the ground he’d be unable to walk.

I tell him about the YouTube comment, which seems to reflect the genuine care his fans have for him.

‘Ah, yeah I know, they’re considerate, they are. We’ve got a special, interesting bond. They’ve grown up with me – and I’ve been through some personal stuff and they’ve always been there for me.’

Tomlinson’s album, Walls, has been a long time coming. Immediately after One Direction split, he released a couple of singles – dance-y pop collaborations – which were fine, but not what he wanted to make. Halfway through writing Walls he realised, ‘If I’m chasing radio with every song I write, I’m not going to be doing this job for very long.’

So he relaxed, and the result is a mix of strong, melody-driven pop of the kind One Direction mastered, and what Tomlinson is really into, namely guitar-driven indie and Britpop. Some songs for the fans; some nodding to the future.

‘It’s a five-album plan. There’s bits where I’ve been almost selfish, and bits where I’ve been respectful to the fan base and what they love listening to,’ he says. ‘Then the next will be a step closer to the stuff I want to make. But I’ve got to earn my stripes.’

The dominant theme, I say, appears to be resilience. On the single Don’t Let It Break Your Heart, he advises, ‘Even when it hurts like hell / Oh, whatever tears you apart / Don’t let it break your heart.’ On the rousing title track (which features a writing credit for Noel Gallagher, who gave his blessing for a chorus strikingly similar to an Oasis tune), he sings, ‘These high walls that broke my soul / I watched all come falling down.’

It could be to do with grief, professional struggles, or his relationship. He nods.

‘Yeah, I write very autobiographically and had so much going on in my head, but in the struggle I’m trying to paint the message that you’re always left with a choice: to see the glass half-full or half-empty. It’s showing there’s hope.’

Some songwriters have found grief productive, others paralysing. Tomlinson was the former. One track on Walls is the previously released Two of Us, a beautiful, simple song written about his mum (‘You’ll never know how much I miss you / The day that they took you, I wish it was me instead’).

‘What’s amazing about this job is that regardless of the situation, you get something positive at the end of it. That’s obviously an emotionally heavy song for me, but fans have come up to me in floods of tears and talked about how it’s helped in their own tragedy. It’s incredible. From the dark, you can give hope.’

For the first three years of his life, Tomlinson was raised alone by Johannah, who split from his father, Troy Austin, when he was a baby. They lived above a launderette in Doncaster, where his mother worked multiple jobs, principally as a midwife, before she married Mark Tomlinson, a van salesman who became Louis’s stepfather. The three moved into a two-up, two-down, which was soon filled with half-sisters: Lottie, now 21, Félicité, then twins Daisy and Phoebe, now 16.

‘It was mad. They’re manic, young girls…’ he says. ‘Mum and Mark had a decent income but they couldn’t spread it around [a family of] seven. At times things were really good, you’d get 20 quid in a birthday card, but others were really difficult. I remember the electricity meter – you’d get five quid on the house as an emergency when you couldn’t top it up. Sometimes it’d be a gamble when it’d run out…’

Tomlinson wasn’t particularly academic – ‘though I’m not daft or owt’ – but loved school. There, he joined a band at 16 and found he was OK at singing, so he applied to audition for The X Factor. He failed, twice, but succeeded on the third try, in 2010, performing a fairly terrible (he admits it) version of Plain White T’s Hey There Delilah.

A few months later, at the ‘bootcamp’ stage, Cowell had the idea of creating a band comprised of Tomlinson and four other solo boys: Harry Styles, Zayn Malik, Niall Horan and Liam Payne. They were to be called One Direction. Tomlinson, who’d been intimidated by the standard of other vocalists in the competition, ‘bit their hand off’ at the offer. ‘I was like, “This is my ticket.”’

The show came just after his second run at the first year of his A levels. He’d failed the first time, with UUE in psychology, PE and English, which his mum had ‘absolutely ripped [his] head off’ for. The second time he’d gone one better, UEE. So he lied, telling her he got a smattering of Ds, and came up with a plan.

‘I waited until after the X Factor final, when we were all sat around drinking champagne, and told her, “By the way, I bulls—tted you on those results. I failed again, but hopefully we’ll be all right now…”’ he laughs. ‘She was fine. I picked my moment well.’

One Direction came third in the final, losing to runner-up Rebecca Ferguson and winner Matt Cardle, a former painter-decorator who now performs in the West End. But it was always felt that the group would go furthest, not least because Cowell was such a supporter (all the other boys have now left his record label, Syco, but because ‘loyalty is the biggest thing’ for Tomlinson, he’s stayed).

Eighteen when the group started, Tomlinson was the oldest member (the others were 16 and 17), ‘just allowed to drink, just allowed to drive’, but suddenly everything in his life was controlled.

‘You’re ready to be reckless and stupid, but then I was in the band and couldn’t ever act like that, especially not publicly,’ he says. They went on their first headline concert tour in 2011, and soon had fans surrounding their hotels overnight, wherever in the world they went. Naturally, they embraced partying.

‘There was a good 18 months where I was going out all the time. The press love to write about that as if it’s this chaotic thing, and at times it was, but it’s also an escape. Once you have a couple of drinks down you in a club, you’re just someone in the club, part of everyone else, and not everyone is looking at you.’

Even when he was away, he kept in contact with his mum by phone – or in person, when she could join him – as much as possible. The two were impossibly close: she had access to his emails; he told her when he lost his virginity; she knew about his finances.

‘One thing I’ve learnt since losing her is that any decision, even if I knew the answer, I’d call her,’ he says. ‘I didn’t realise how reliant I’d become on her. That was the hardest thing for me, understanding that living life after meant making decisions on my own. I thought I’d always have a sounding board. There was a different level of credibility with my mum, because I idolised her.’

Styles has recently joked that One Direction were ‘grown in test tubes’ by Cowell, but Tomlinson insists that part of their appeal lay in the fact that they all had their own personalities and talents, which weren’t forced on them. Still, it took him years to know where he fitted. Styles was cool, a heart-throb. Malik was moody and mysterious. Horan was cute and Irish. Payne was whatever Payne was. But Tomlinson wasn’t sure.

‘You’ve got to be dead cocky in Doncaster to survive – it’s either that or be picked on. So I used to walk around with a chip on my shoulder. But I’d always been the funny guy, centre of attention, so I never struggled to make mates,’ he says. ‘It was weird suddenly being in a situation where one or two members are constantly in a better position. It took me a while to understand my strengths. I was the oldest and it wasn’t until the third album when I made it my mission to write the most.’

He succeeded: Tomlinson’s writing credit appears on 39 of the 96 songs One Direction recorded, four more than Payne and dozens more than the rest. But it was intense. There were times when he considered quitting the band, if only to allow him to escape the attention, but he likens that to children running away from home. ‘By the time you get halfway down the street you regret it and go back…’

‘Directioners’ were ‘fanatical’ about the boys, to a frequently absurd degree. And not every encounter was surreally funny. The year after the hiatus began, in 2017, Tomlinson and Calder were involved in a scuffle with paparazzi and fans at the airport in LA. Fists possibly flew, and Tomlinson was arrested, only for no further action to be taken. The fans now are still loyal, still ardent, but they’ve matured with him.

What kept him grounded, as the money rolled in (I have heard that each of the boys amassed a £40 million fortune from the band, and that collectively they still earn around £38,000 a week from royalties, merchandise and so on) and the fans bayed, was keeping friends from Doncaster around. When I arrived at today’s photo shoot, Tomlinson was busy doing his singular pose at one end of the room, while at the other, near the free pastries, a young redheaded bloke in a tracksuit lurked, scrolling through his phone.

He introduced himself as Oli, Tomlinson’s ‘mate from Donny’, who has spent the better part of a decade travelling the world with his pop-star friend, and seems to operate as a walking comfort blanket. They live together when Tomlinson’s in LA.

They also live together when he’s in London. I imagine there’s space for house guests wherever he is, though: it has been reported that he put his Hollywood Hills mansion on the market last year for $6.995 million, and the previous year valued another property in California at $13.999 million, after apparently renting it out for $40,000 per month.

‘I’m hoping to do a bit of work with Louis’s tour manager this year,’ Oli says, cheerfully. I later discover he’s so ever-present with Tomlinson that he even has his own fan accounts on social media.

‘I remember bringing a mate out for our first US tour. He called from his hotel with his mind blown by being able to pick up a phone and they’d just bring you food,’ Tomlinson says. ‘I go back to Donny and hear heavy s—t – struggles with jobs, money, family, health. That humbles me, and gives me a better emotional intelligence.’

He reckons ‘eight out of 10 people have an ulterior motive’ when they meet him. Luckily he can tell if someone’s a pre-fame friend. His name is pronounced ‘Loo-ee’, but he wasn’t keen on it as a child, so had mates, like Oli, pronounce it ‘Lewis’, which they still do. Unfortunately Cowell guessed at ‘Loo-ee’ on The X Factor, so that was that for the stage name.

By 2015, some members of One Direction felt an itch to break off – or just have a break – and try their own thing. Malik had gone in March, and while a full split seemed inevitable, Tomlinson was still caught off-guard.

‘I was f—king fuming at first. We were working really hard – people [namely, Payne] have said overworked, but we weren’t overworked, that’s just what happens when you’re a band that size, though I understand. I thought I’d mentally prepared myself for a break, but it hit me hard.’

He was finally feeling comfortable in the band, and hadn’t thought about a solo career.

‘About a week after, I sat there thinking, “Strike while the iron’s hot,” but I wasn’t ready. I was bitter and angry, I didn’t know why we couldn’t just carry on. But now, even though I don’t fully understand everyone’s individual reasons, I respect them.’

They’re ostensibly all still mates, despite going in radically different musical directions, though some are closer than others. Tomlinson seems to mention Horan with most affection, and the pair performed at the same event in Mexico in November, titillating 1D fans by sound-checking together with one of the band’s old songs.

If it was up to you, I ask, would the group still be going? He considers this for a moment.

‘It if was up to me, yeah. I’d maybe have said, “Let’s have a year off.” But yeah, probably. I’m sure there’s a better analogy out there but it’s a bit like [shutting down] Coca-Cola. You don’t say, “Right, let’s hang the boots up on that,” because it’s a massive thing.’

Afterwards he muddled around for a bit, including releasing those early singles – one of which he performed on The X Factor, rigid with grief, just days after his mum’s death. Then he returned to the show last year as a judge, alongside Cowell, Robbie Williams and Williams’s wife, Ayda Field.

Did he get on with Robbie? He smiles, arching an eyebrow. ‘Why do you ask?’ Well, he came out of a boy band, went solo…

‘Oh, yeah, he was all right. He’s a good man, we were just different from each other. Certain moments I thought, “F—king hell, Robbie, just sit down for five minutes, I’ve got something to say.” I love his missus though, Ayda, she’s sound.’

Tomlinson liked mentoring, and during our conversation it becomes clear he’s fuelled by responsibility. He was the oldest sibling in his house, and although Mark Tomlinson and Johannah’s second husband (after divorcing Mark in 2011, she married Dan Deakin in 2014; they had twins Ernest and Doris) are still around, he became a paternal figure after she died. He’s particularly involved in the lives of Daisy and Phoebe, to whom he’s ‘a kind of second parent’.

‘Without being too soppy, I like looking after people, it’s cool. At the moment I’m stressing trying to convince Daisy and Phoebe to go to sixth form. They’ve been to private school near Donny, and it’s proper expensive. I’m paying for it thinking they’re staying on, but now they don’t want to go. I told them education is important. I’m like, “You’re 16, you haven’t got a f—king idea what the real world is,”’ he says.

‘What’s difficult about those two is they’ve only known the 1D craziness. They’ve grown up in this elitist way, which is very different from my upbringing and Lottie’s, and the values my mum taught us.’

He gives a ‘kids, eh?’ sigh. ‘Consistency is the big thing. I’m trying to get better at being in their heads enough so they think, “I wonder if Louis thinks this is a good idea?”’

Lottie lives in Hackney, east London. When she was a teenager, Tomlinson got her a job assisting One Direction’s make-up artist, and within a few years she’d become a ridiculously popular Instagrammer (currently with 3.4 million followers, still 10 million shy of Louis). Her big brother told her Instagram’s fine, but she must ‘become a proper businesswoman’ in case the bubble bursts. In 2018 she launched Tanologist, a successful fake-tan brand.

‘I’m so proud of her. She’s just been in Australia, where she’s stocked in Melbourne’s version of Boots!’ Tomlinson says, beaming.

Félicité, known to the family as Fizz, was also a budding Instagrammer. After her death last March, a post-mortem revealed ‘toxic’ levels of anti-anxiety and pain medications, as well as cocaine, in her blood. Six months later, an inquest heard that she had visited her GP in August 2018 and ‘gave a history of recreational drug use… on a consistent basis since the death of her mother’. She had taken overdoses and been admitted to a rehabilitation clinic.

Tomlinson hesitates to say anything was ‘easier’, comparing the deaths of Félicité and his mum, as ‘both felt very individual, and hit me with a big impact�� but I think dealing with the family, how I can be there for them, that was a lot easier the second time because the first time I was grieving and didn’t know what to say. As time went on I grew to understand what to say to my sisters.’

Prioritising the feelings of your sisters in the immediate aftermath is understandable, I say, but I wonder if anyone took care of you. He looks surprised.

‘No, but friends and family, my best mate… I feel their support but I get most out of doing stuff for other people. I don’t say that to sound like a good guy, it’s genuinely what gives me strength.’

Did you ever consider grief therapy?

‘Nah, a lot of people recommended it but I’m a little bit old-fashioned when it comes to therapy. I’m sure it’s incredible, but I thought I’d be all right, and I have been till now.’ One of his many tattoos consists of the words ‘It Is What It Is’ across his chest. ‘I know the things I’ve been upset about in my life are s—t, but I can’t change them, so you have to make the best of what you’ve got.’

Tomlinson gives his own big smile. Our time’s nearly up, and he’d like a cigarette. After all you’ve been through, I tell him, people would have understood if you’d called it a day. You could have lived off royalties, enjoyed a quiet life.

‘Definitely, definitely. But do you know what? It didn’t cross my mind once. I somehow have an inability to worry, and just get on with things,’ he says, shrugging. ‘It’s definitely made me stronger. I’ve gone through every emotion, and I’m just f—king excited now.’

I think we have an answer. How is Louis Tomlinson? Hopefully, he’ll be just fine.

Walls is released on 31 January

[elceeu2morrow]

By Guy Kelly 17 JANUARY 2020 • 8:00PM

He became a bona-fide teen pop superstar as part of One Direction, then suffered unthinkable personal loss. Louis Tomlinson talks to Guy Kelly about fame, family and what comes next.

Louis Tomlinson took part in an online video recently, in which he was tasked with answering the internet’s most-searched questions about him. It was fairly tame, as you might expect of a pop quiz thrown at a pop star. ‘How do you pronounce Louis Tomlinson?’ the first read. There’s an interesting answer to that, actually, but we’ll come to it. ‘How old is Louis Tomlinson?’ was the second. He’s 28. And then came the third. ‘How is Louis Tomlinson?’

In the video, the man himself looks a little bewildered, dismissing the query as ‘random’ before moving on. But underneath, in the YouTube comments – one of the few nooks of the internet where love and goodwill still thrives – a fan repeated it. ‘“How is Louis Tomlinson,”’ they wrote, ‘the only question that matters.’ More than 7,000 people ‘liked’ it.

Given all Tomlinson’s been through in the past four years, it seems reasonable to ask. In 2016, the band he’d been in man and boy, One Direction, went on an indefinite hiatus after six years. Since being welded together by Simon Cowell on The X Factor in 2010, ‘1D’ had enjoyed perhaps the most stratospheric rise in music (five platinum albums, four world tours) since The Beatles. It hadn’t been Tomlinson’s decision to break up the band, and he wasn’t – still isn’t – particularly happy about it.

[complete article below the cut]

In December of that year, his beloved mother, Johannah Deakin, died a few months after being diagnosed with leukaemia. She was 43. Tomlinson pressed on with his nascent solo career, but unimaginable tragedy struck again. In March 2019, his 18-year-old half-sister, Félicité, was found unconscious at her flat in London and couldn’t be revived. An inquest later found she had died of an accidental drug overdose. Again, he buckled down, looked after his remaining siblings, and committed himself to finishing his debut album.

Settling down with Tomlinson in the corner of a west London photo studio, then, it seems as good a place as any to start: how is he?

‘I’m good, mate, I’m feeling good,’ he says, spreading his arms across a sofa. After wearing a series of high-end outfits for our photo shoot (‘I never feel super-comfortable on shoots; I’ve got one f—king pose – moody’), he’s in a black ’90s-inspired collared jumper, black trousers and black trainers.

He pushes his fringe to one side. The Doncaster accent, which softened in his 1D days, is back to pure, unfettered South Yorks. It’s all ‘in t’band’, ‘I didn’t know owt’, and swearing like a navvy. He’s honest, funny, and if his feet were planted any more firmly on the ground he’d be unable to walk.

I tell him about the YouTube comment, which seems to reflect the genuine care his fans have for him.

‘Ah, yeah I know, they’re considerate, they are. We’ve got a special, interesting bond. They’ve grown up with me – and I’ve been through some personal stuff and they’ve always been there for me.’

Tomlinson’s album, Walls, has been a long time coming. Immediately after One Direction split, he released a couple of singles – dance-y pop collaborations – which were fine, but not what he wanted to make. Halfway through writing Walls he realised, ‘If I’m chasing radio with every song I write, I’m not going to be doing this job for very long.’

So he relaxed, and the result is a mix of strong, melody-driven pop of the kind One Direction mastered, and what Tomlinson is really into, namely guitar-driven indie and Britpop. Some songs for the fans; some nodding to the future.

‘It’s a five-album plan. There’s bits where I’ve been almost selfish, and bits where I’ve been respectful to the fan base and what they love listening to,’ he says. ‘Then the next will be a step closer to the stuff I want to make. But I’ve got to earn my stripes.’

The dominant theme, I say, appears to be resilience. On the single Don’t Let It Break Your Heart, he advises, ‘Even when it hurts like hell / Oh, whatever tears you apart / Don’t let it break your heart.’ On the rousing title track (which features a writing credit for Noel Gallagher, who gave his blessing for a chorus strikingly similar to an Oasis tune), he sings, ‘These high walls that broke my soul / I watched all come falling down.’

It could be to do with grief, professional struggles, or his relationship – he’s happily with his girlfriend, 27-year-old fashion blogger Eleanor Calder, but they’ve been on and off over the years. He nods.

‘Yeah, I write very autobiographically and had so much going on in my head, but in the struggle I’m trying to paint the message that you’re always left with a choice: to see the glass half-full or half-empty. It’s showing there’s hope.’

Some songwriters have found grief productive, others paralysing. Tomlinson was the former. One track on Walls is the previously released Two of Us, a beautiful, simple song written about his mum (‘You’ll never know how much I miss you / The day that they took you, I wish it was me instead’).

‘What’s amazing about this job is that regardless of the situation, you get something positive at the end of it. That’s obviously an emotionally heavy song for me, but fans have come up to me in floods of tears and talked about how it’s helped in their own tragedy. It’s incredible. From the dark, you can give hope.’

For the first three years of his life, Tomlinson was raised alone by Johannah, who split from his father, Troy Austin, when he was a baby. They lived above a launderette in Doncaster, where his mother worked multiple jobs, principally as a midwife, before she married Mark Tomlinson, a van salesman who became Louis’s stepfather. The three moved into a two-up, two-down, which was soon filled with half-sisters: Lottie, now 21, Félicité, then twins Daisy and Phoebe, now 16.

‘It was mad. They’re manic, young girls…’ he says. ‘Mum and Mark had a decent income but they couldn’t spread it around [a family of] seven. At times things were really good, you’d get 20 quid in a birthday card, but others were really difficult. I remember the electricity meter – you’d get five quid on the house as an emergency when you couldn’t top it up. Sometimes it’d be a gamble when it’d run out…’

Tomlinson wasn’t particularly academic – ‘though I’m not daft or owt’ – but loved school. There, he joined a band at 16 and found he was OK at singing, so he applied to audition for The X Factor. He failed, twice, but succeeded on the third try, in 2010, performing a fairly terrible (he admits it) version of Plain White T’s Hey There Delilah.

A few months later, at the ‘bootcamp’ stage, Cowell had the idea of creating a band comprised of Tomlinson and four other solo boys: Harry Styles, Zayn Malik, Niall Horan and Liam Payne. They were to be called One Direction. Tomlinson, who’d been intimidated by the standard of other vocalists in the competition, ‘bit their hand off’ at the offer. ‘I was like, “This is my ticket.”’

The show came just after his second run at the first year of his A levels. He’d failed the first time, with UUE in psychology, PE and English, which his mum had ‘absolutely ripped [his] head off’ for. The second time he’d gone one better, UEE. So he lied, telling her he got a smattering of Ds, and came up with a plan.

‘I waited until after the X Factor final, when we were all sat around drinking champagne, and told her, “By the way, I bulls—tted you on those results. I failed again, but hopefully we’ll be all right now…”’ he laughs. ‘She was fine. I picked my moment well.’

One Direction came third in the final, losing to runner-up Rebecca Ferguson and winner Matt Cardle, a former painter-decorator who now performs in the West End. But it was always felt that the group would go furthest, not least because Cowell was such a supporter (all the other boys have now left his record label, Syco, but because ‘loyalty is the biggest thing’ for Tomlinson, he’s stayed).

Eighteen when the group started, Tomlinson was the oldest member (the others were 16 and 17), ‘just allowed to drink, just allowed to drive’, but suddenly everything in his life was controlled.

‘You’re ready to be reckless and stupid, but then I was in the band and couldn’t ever act like that, especially not publicly,’ he says. They went on their first headline concert tour in 2011, and soon had fans surrounding their hotels overnight, wherever in the world they went. Naturally, they embraced partying.

‘There was a good 18 months where I was going out all the time. The press love to write about that as if it’s this chaotic thing, and at times it was, but it’s also an escape. Once you have a couple of drinks down you in a club, you’re just someone in the club, part of everyone else, and not everyone is looking at you.’

Even when he was away, he kept in contact with his mum by phone – or in person, when she could join him – as much as possible. The two were impossibly close: she had access to his emails; he told her when he lost his virginity; she knew about his finances.

‘One thing I’ve learnt since losing her is that any decision, even if I knew the answer, I’d call her,’ he says. ‘I didn’t realise how reliant I’d become on her. That was the hardest thing for me, understanding that living life after meant making decisions on my own. I thought I’d always have a sounding board. There was a different level of credibility with my mum, because I idolised her.’

Styles has recently joked that One Direction were ‘grown in test tubes’ by Cowell, but Tomlinson insists that part of their appeal lay in the fact that they all had their own personalities and talents, which weren’t forced on them. Still, it took him years to know where he fitted. Styles was cool, a heart-throb. Malik was moody and mysterious. Horan was cute and Irish. Payne was whatever Payne was. But Tomlinson wasn’t sure.

‘You’ve got to be dead cocky in Doncaster to survive – it’s either that or be picked on. So I used to walk around with a chip on my shoulder. But I’d always been the funny guy, centre of attention, so I never struggled to make mates,’ he says. ‘It was weird suddenly being in a situation where one or two members are constantly in a better position. It took me a while to understand my strengths. I was the oldest and it wasn’t until the third album when I made it my mission to write the most.’

He succeeded: Tomlinson’s writing credit appears on 39 of the 96 songs One Direction recorded, four more than Payne and dozens more than the rest. But it was intense. There were times when he considered quitting the band, if only to allow him to escape the attention, but he likens that to children running away from home. ‘By the time you get halfway down the street you regret it and go back…’

‘Directioners’ were ‘fanatical’ about the boys, to a frequently absurd degree. And not every encounter was surreally funny. The year after the hiatus began, in 2017, Tomlinson and Calder were involved in a scuffle with paparazzi and fans at the airport in LA. Fists possibly flew, and Tomlinson was arrested, only for no further action to be taken. The fans now are still loyal, still ardent, but they’ve matured with him.

What kept him grounded, as the money rolled in (I have heard that each of the boys amassed a £40 million fortune from the band, and that collectively they still earn around £38,000 a week from royalties, merchandise and so on) and the fans bayed, was keeping friends from Doncaster around. When I arrived at today’s photo shoot, Tomlinson was busy doing his singular pose at one end of the room, while at the other, near the free pastries, a young redheaded bloke in a tracksuit lurked, scrolling through his phone.

He introduced himself as Oli, Tomlinson’s ‘mate from Donny’, who has spent the better part of a decade travelling the world with his pop-star friend, and seems to operate as a walking comfort blanket. They live together when Tomlinson’s in LA, where he has a three-year-old son, Freddie, from a short relationship with stylist Briana Jungwirth.

They also live together when he’s in London, along with Calder, to whom it was recently reported that Tomlinson is engaged (his representatives denied the rumour). I imagine there’s space for house guests wherever he is, though: it has been reported that he put his Hollywood Hills mansion on the market last year for $6.995 million, and the previous year valued another property in California at $13.999 million, after apparently renting it out for $40,000 per month.

‘I’m hoping to do a bit of work with Louis’s tour manager this year,’ Oli says, cheerfully. I later discover he’s so ever-present with Tomlinson that he even has his own fan accounts on social media.

‘I remember bringing a mate out for our first US tour. He called from his hotel with his mind blown by being able to pick up a phone and they’d just bring you food,’ Tomlinson says. ‘I go back to Donny and hear heavy s—t – struggles with jobs, money, family, health. That humbles me, and gives me a better emotional intelligence.’

He reckons ‘eight out of 10 people have an ulterior motive’ when they meet him. Luckily he can tell if someone’s a pre-fame friend. His name is pronounced ‘Loo-ee’, but he wasn’t keen on it as a child, so had mates, like Oli, pronounce it ‘Lewis’, which they still do. Unfortunately Cowell guessed at ‘Loo-ee’ on The X Factor, so that was that for the stage name.

By 2015, some members of One Direction felt an itch to break off – or just have a break – and try their own thing. Malik had gone in March, and while a full split seemed inevitable, Tomlinson was still caught off-guard.

‘I was f—king fuming at first. We were working really hard – people [namely, Payne] have said overworked, but we weren’t overworked, that’s just what happens when you’re a band that size, though I understand. I thought I’d mentally prepared myself for a break, but it hit me hard.’

He was finally feeling comfortable in the band, and hadn’t thought about a solo career.

‘About a week after, I sat there thinking, “Strike while the iron’s hot,” but I wasn’t ready. I was bitter and angry, I didn’t know why we couldn’t just carry on. But now, even though I don’t fully understand everyone’s individual reasons, I respect them.’

They’re ostensibly all still mates, despite going in radically different musical directions, though some are closer than others. Tomlinson seems to mention Horan with most affection, and the pair performed at the same event in Mexico in November, titillating 1D fans by sound-checking together with one of the band’s old songs.

If it was up to you, I ask, would the group still be going? He considers this for a moment.

‘It if was up to me, yeah. I’d maybe have said, “Let’s have a year off.” But yeah, probably. I’m sure there’s a better analogy out there but it’s a bit like [shutting down] Coca-Cola. You don’t say, “Right, let’s hang the boots up on that,” because it’s a massive thing.’

Afterwards he muddled around for a bit, including releasing those early singles – one of which he performed on The X Factor, rigid with grief, just days after his mum’s death. Then he returned to the show last year as a judge, alongside Cowell, Robbie Williams and Williams’s wife, Ayda Field.

Did he get on with Robbie? He smiles, arching an eyebrow. ‘Why do you ask?’ Well, he came out of a boy band, went solo…

‘Oh, yeah, he was all right. He’s a good man, we were just different from each other. Certain moments I thought, “F—king hell, Robbie, just sit down for five minutes, I’ve got something to say.” I love his missus though, Ayda, she’s sound.’

Tomlinson liked mentoring, and during our conversation it becomes clear he’s fuelled by responsibility. He was the oldest sibling in his house, and although Mark Tomlinson and Johannah’s second husband (after divorcing Mark in 2011, she married Dan Deakin in 2014; they had twins Ernest and Doris) are still around, he became a paternal figure after she died. He’s particularly involved in the lives of Daisy and Phoebe, to whom he’s ‘a kind of second parent’.

‘Without being too soppy, I like looking after people, it’s cool. At the moment I’m stressing trying to convince Daisy and Phoebe to go to sixth form. They’ve been to private school near Donny, and it’s proper expensive. I’m paying for it thinking they’re staying on, but now they don’t want to go. I told them education is important. I’m like, “You’re 16, you haven’t got a f—king idea what the real world is,”’ he says.

‘What’s difficult about those two is they’ve only known the 1D craziness. They’ve grown up in this elitist way, which is very different from my upbringing and Lottie’s, and the values my mum taught us.’

He gives a ‘kids, eh?’ sigh. ‘Consistency is the big thing. I’m trying to get better at being in their heads enough so they think, “I wonder if Louis thinks this is a good idea?”’

Lottie lives in Hackney, east London. When she was a teenager, Tomlinson got her a job assisting One Direction’s make-up artist, and within a few years she’d become a ridiculously popular Instagrammer (currently with 3.4 million followers, still 10 million shy of Louis). Her big brother told her Instagram’s fine, but she must ‘become a proper businesswoman’ in case the bubble bursts. In 2018 she launched Tanologist, a successful fake-tan brand.

‘I’m so proud of her. She’s just been in Australia, where she’s stocked in Melbourne’s version of Boots!’ Tomlinson says, beaming.

Félicité, known to the family as Fizz, was also a budding Instagrammer. After her death last March, a post-mortem revealed ‘toxic’ levels of anti-anxiety and pain medications, as well as cocaine, in her blood. Six months later, an inquest heard that she had visited her GP in August 2018 and ‘gave a history of recreational drug use… on a consistent basis since the death of her mother’. She had taken overdoses and been admitted to a rehabilitation clinic.

Tomlinson hesitates to say anything was ‘easier’, comparing the deaths of Félicité and his mum, as ‘both felt very individual, and hit me with a big impact… but I think dealing with the family, how I can be there for them, that was a lot easier the second time because the first time I was grieving and didn’t know what to say. As time went on I grew to understand what to say to my sisters.’

Prioritising the feelings of your sisters in the immediate aftermath is understandable, I say, but I wonder if anyone took care of you. He looks surprised.

‘No, but friends and family, my best mate, my girlfriend, my son… I feel their support but I get most out of doing stuff for other people. I don’t say that to sound like a good guy, it’s genuinely what gives me strength.’

Did you ever consider grief therapy?

‘Nah, a lot of people recommended it but I’m a little bit old-fashioned when it comes to therapy. I’m sure it’s incredible, but I thought I’d be all right, and I have been till now.’ One of his many tattoos consists of the words ‘It Is What It Is’ across his chest. ‘I know the things I’ve been upset about in my life are s—t, but I can’t change them, so you have to make the best of what you’ve got.’

What he’s got is an album to launch, a world tour to prep for and, immediately, a flight to catch. He and Oli are off to see Freddie. ‘When I’m working I definitely don’t see him enough,’ Tomlinson says, ‘but he looks just like me, which is cool. I’m excited to see his big smile.’

Tomlinson gives his own big smile. Our time’s nearly up, and he’d like a cigarette. After all you’ve been through, I tell him, people would have understood if you’d called it a day. You could have lived off royalties, enjoyed a quiet life with Calder, Freddie, your sisters.

‘Definitely, definitely. But do you know what? It didn’t cross my mind once. I somehow have an inability to worry, and just get on with things,’ he says, shrugging. ‘It’s definitely made me stronger. I’ve gone through every emotion, and I’m just f—king excited now.’

I think we have an answer. How is Louis Tomlinson? Hopefully, he’ll be just fine.

Walls is released on 31 January

[george-steel-armours]

• Cuirassier Armor of King Charles I of England.

Netherlands, 1612-1613.

🏛 @historicroyalpalaces

Tower of London.

📝 Originally made for Henry, Prince of Wales. This full field armor for a young man complete with a chanfron and saddle plates is fully embellished with engraved and hammered finishes and covered with gold leaf. It was originally ordered from the gunsmith Moritz of Nassau, Prince of Orange (1567-1625), for Heinrich the Prince of Wales, who died in 1612 before the armor was finished. The armor passed to Henry's brother, who later became King Charles I. It cost a huge sum of 450 pounds. In the list of armor brought to the Tower by Edward Annesley in 1644, he was marked as the armor of Charles I.

⚔️ Armor: height 169 cm, weight 33.2 kg

Part weights:

Right mitten: 0.578 kg

Left mitten: 0.59 kg

Gorget: 1.09 kg

Right Greater with Sabaton: 1.39 kg

Left Greaves with Sabaton: 1.44 kg

Right Tasset: 1.66 kg

Tasset: 1.59 kg

Right Tasset (Top): 1.86 kg

Left Tasset (Top): 2.22 kg

Left arm and shoulder pads: 2.95 kg

Backrest: 4.23 kg

Chest: 4.45 kg

Helmet: 4.9 kg

🎨Equestrian portrait of Charles I, King of England.

Painting, 1640.

📝 Anthony (Anton) van Dyck (Dutch: Antoon van Dyck, March 22, 1599 - December 9, 1641) - South Dutch (Flemish) painter and graphic artist, master of court portraiture and religious subjects in the Baroque style. Creator of a new type of decorative portrait.

~*~

[paintthe-blog]

Address : 39a&b, Allfarthing Lane London SW18 2AP

Phone : 02088710531 Email : hello@paintthetowngreen.co.uk Website : https://paintthetowngreen.co.uk/

Description : Looking for painters decorators in London? We are a bespoke painting and decorating service established in 2007, described by the Daily Express as a "firm that defines a new species of tradesperson."  A member of the Guild of Master Craftsmen and Which?trusted trader, we also have our own brand of odourless, non-toxic designer paint which is available for you to buy from our showroom in South West London. Areas Served London, Surrey, Hampshire, Greater London, Sussex Awards http://trustedtraders.which.co.uk/businesses/paint-the-town-green/ http://www.findacraftsman.com/searchresults/paint~the~town~green/member/ https://paintthetowngreen.co.uk/pttg-world/awards/

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