Fanny Easterfield

Fanny Easterfield was a local artist working mainly in watercolours of landscapes, and interiors.  She was the youngest child of Hannah (nee Shaw) and Walter Easterfield, a Station Master at Northgate Station.

Her works were well known locally and she regularly exhibited at the Castle Museum, Nottingham.  She was an active member of the Town and taught Sunday School for many years and supported the local branch of the League of Nations Union.  Her interests included rowing and tennis and she was amongst the first members of Newark Tennis Club.

She trained as an artist at South Kensington School of Art, London, returning to Newark after graduating.  She earned her living as a private tutor in drawing and painting, teaching many pupils from the Town.  Her classes were not restricted to the studio but often involved excursions to the local museum to study paintings.

During her lifetime, she and her easel were a familiar sight around Newark.  She created many scenes of local landmarks.  These included Newark Castle, the Parish Church of St. Mary Magdalene and the old Roman Bridge at Claypole.

In 1905 some of her local views were made into postcards, four of which were published by J W Ruddock of Lincoln, as part of its ‘Artists Series’. These were, the Castle from the Trent, the Parish Church and Kirkgate from its junction with Middlegate, the Castle grounds and Gilstrap Library and Trent Bridge.

Two of her works are on permanent display: View of Newark depicting the distant Castle, Church Spire and Ossington as seen from nearby Tolney Lane, and the Market Place.  Other works included watercolours of the Yorkshire Moors, Wales, Scotland, Ireland and Switzerland.

Fanny’s entrepreneurial skills included annual pre-Christmas exhibitions, held at her home at 15 Friary Road. Many of Newark’s residents took the opportunity of buying presents.

The obituary in the Newark Advertiser described Fanny Easterfield as having ‘a keen intelligence and a kind and lovable temperament’  whose ‘loss as a notable artist, townswomen and friends will be unmistakably felt’.