Low Tide, France

Harry van der Weyden was born in Boston Massachusetts, the son of Henry van der Wyde, a Dutch born American painter and photographer. The family migrated to London in 1870 and in 1887 Harry won a scholarship to the Slade School of Art where he studied under Alphonse Legros. In 1890 he moved to Paris where he studied at the Academie Julian under Benjamin Constant, Jean-Paul Larens and Jules-Joseph Lefebvre. He first exhibited at the Paris Salon in 1891. He altered his name to van der Weyden and was soon showing his work in the United States. At some point he returned to London to study under Fred Brown, and established himself there, exhibiting at the Royal Academy and becoming a member of the Royal Institute of Painters in Oils. Between the turn of the century and World War I he and his family lived in Montreuil-sur-Mer, Pas de Calais. This gave him easy access to the Normandy coast where he painted in an Impressionist manner. He exhibited many of the pictures from this period at the Galerie des Artistes Modernes and as a member of both the Paris Society of American Painters and the American Art Association of Paris. With the threat of war the family moved to Sussex and between 1916-1918 he served as a camouflage officer with the Royal Engineers at Etaples. He died in London in 1952.