The Archangel St Michael

Sidney Harold Meteyard was born in Stourbridge and studied under Edward R Taylor at Birmingham School of Art where he may well have first come into contact with Burne-Jones whose work was to have a great influence upon him. As a pupil at the School of Art he was among the group to paint a set of murals for Birmingham Town Hall. From 1886 he himself became a tutor at Birmingham School of Art and he continued to teach there for the following 45 years. Hugely versatile, he worked as a painter in oil, tempera and watercolour, a designer of stained glass, enamels, gesso and leatherwork and as a book illustrator. He lived and worked in Birmingham for most of his life, keeping a studio in Livery Street, near Snow Hill Station. He was married to the jeweller, Kate Eadie, also a Birmingham School of Art student. Meteyard exhibited pictures at the Royal Academy, New Gallery, Royal Birmingham Society of Artists, Paris Salon and elsewhere. He became an associate member of the Royal Birmingham Society of Artists in 1902 and full member in 1909. We are grateful to Peter Cormack for his kind assistance in cataloguing this picture.