Psyche at the Tate Gallery

Beresford was born in Derby where he studied at the School of Art. After a time in Paris at the Academie Carmen he entered the St John’s Wood School of Art and then the Royal Academy Schools, which he left in 1906. He won a British Institution Scholarship which took him on a world tour, including Asia and as a result of his successful visit to Japan he gained the first award for art from the Imperial Japanese government in 1909. Working as a painter of portraits, interiors and equestrian subjects he was busy with numerous society and political commission. As a mural decorator he designed murals for St Bartholomew the Great Church, Smithfield. He was a regular exhibitor at the Royal Academy, Royal Institute of Painters in Oils and elsewhere and was an early member of the United Society of Artists and the New Society of Artists. In World War I he joined the London Regiment and served as an instructor. In 1936 he painted The Princes’ Vigil: 12.15am, January 28 1936, depicting the four princes keeping vigil with the coffin of George V. The painting was purchased by Queen Mary who gave it to Edward VIII. During World War II he was a war artist for both the American and British air forces and for three years he painted and sketched on air stations across Britain. At the end of the war the United States Air Force awarded him the Exceptional Service Award, only once before granted to a British subject. He lived at Northiam, Sussex. Francis Derwent Wood’s bronze statue of Psyche was presented to the Tate Gallery by the Trustees of the Chantrey Bequest in 1919. It is currently on loan to the Victoria & Albert Museum and can be seen in the main Sculpture Gallery. Beresford’s painting of the statue shows the original grey patina which has since been lost. Another bronze cast is in the collection of the Lady Lever Art Gallery, Port Sunlight.