Tragic Fate Ends Life of Boy Genius

Greymouth Evening Star, 23 March 1929, Page 9

Tragic Fate Ends Life of Boy Genius

Brillian t Artist Who Spent His All on Famous Model DESERTED BY “DOLORES” Dolores, the famous model, who sat so often for Epstein, figured recently, in London, in a sad case concerning a young artist of great promise. It was stated at the inquest on the lad that, having spent all his savings on her, he took his life when she left him. A woman art dealer, who helped the young man when he came to London from his home in a mining town, disclosed the romantic story of his struggle for success, which was within sight when he

enr'ed his life. FREDERICK ATKINSON was the •* name of this talented and unhappy youth who, at' the age, of 20, gassed himself in a Maida Vale studio. Mrs. Mabel Fredericke, a Chelsea art dealer, told the “Daily Chronicle” a remarkable story of his coming to London to achieve fame. “This boy—he was a genius—ran away from his home in Rotherham in March, 1926,” she said. “He was one of ten children, and his parents were poor. He had 50s and a few brushes and a few drawings.

“Before coming to London the master at the school he had attended said to him, ‘My boy, get to London at any cost, even if you have to starve.’ "I Want Chelsea” “So he came to London. On a bitter March evening he arrived at Liverpool Street Station, his small portfolio under his arm and his face pinched with cold. He asked a policeman how to get to Chelsea, ‘where the artists live.’ “The policeman asked him what part he wanted, and he replied ‘King’s Road.’ The policeman put him on a bus, and when the conductor asked what part of the road he wanted he replied, ‘Put me in the middle of it.’

“I do not know whether my shop is exactly in the middle of it, but the bus dropped Atkinson just opposite. We wore shut, but the lights were on. “He then decided he would call at the shop the following day and was directed by a policeman to a landlady in Markham Street near by, where he yvas put up. The landlady was a mother to him for 18 months. “He came to the shop next morning with three or four drawings under his arm —very immature they were, little bits of boats and things, with mountains in the distance.

“I did not see anything in them, but my partner, Mr. L. H. Whitworth,

found that Atkinson had a very keen sense of perspective.

“My partner gave him a shipping print to paint, and we gave him a canvas, a largo one, almost for a joke. “The boy took it away, and in four hours came back with a beautiful painted picture, more beautiful than the original.

‘My partner bought it for 50s or £3. “He went on painting things for us, and Mr. Whitworth asked him to concentrate on old views of London, and to go and see where bricks came tumbling down, and to paint the scene.

“I supplied him with canvases, material and money, and he went on very happily until this terrible tragedy. We have many of his works, and in sfcme of them he was supreme. .The drawing in them was magnificent, and he was so quick. “His poor parents are brokenhearted. He had been painting since he was six, and in early days he would use little bits of brown paper, and even cardboard.” She added that the boy’s body was being taken to Sheffield in a picture van.

What a Beautiful Woman

Dramatic evidence was given by Mrs. Fredericke at the inquest by the Paddington coroner. She told how one night' when she was dining with Atkinson they saw an artist’s model named Dolores. Mrs. Fredericke believed that this woman was a Jewess and was now in Sweden.

Atkinson then remarked, “What a beautiful woman! I would like to paint her.” Having known this woman in business as an artist’s model, she (Mrs. Fredericke) introduced him to Dolores, and the next she heard was that they were living together at his studio. Atkinson had saved about £l5O to £2OO.

The Coroner: Do you know if. he spent this money on the artist’s model? —She spent the money for him. She was living with a penniless artist.

How could she be living with two men at the same time? —Well, it was the case. It was when I mentioned the fact to Atkinson that he became alive to this state of things. £2O on a Dinner

Atkinson, said Mrs. Fredericke, used to buy clothes and jewellery for the artist’s model, and take her to restaurants. In one night he spent about £2O on a dinner.

Did she get all his money?—Yes, she got the whole of it. She used to make out to him that she could get him business through art patrons. “When he got to his very last pound,” said Mrs. Fredericke, “the woman disappeared. She went back to the other fellow.” She told the woman afterwards that she had ruined Atkinson, and Dolores replied: "I had to leave him, he was so melodramatic, and was always threatening to take his life.” It was reported, said Mrs. Fredericke, that Dolores was married, and had been twice divorced.

Atkinson had worshipped her, and had written a book of poems all dedicated to Dolores.

He was a good artist, you say?— Yes; he had a most brilliant future before him. We thought so much of his work that we had kept him going for about two years.

He had no training, only an ordinary education, but he had studied closely and had read books. He had i’jfended to buy a little business with the money he had saved. She had had 2’oo' of his pictures in the last two years. The Last Letter When he found that Dolores had been telling him lies he seemed overwhelmed. Dolores looked young, but was about 40. The coroner read the following letter in Atkinson’s handwriting, which was found in the studio: —

"1 am finished. I cannot get work now until it pleases my dealers to give it me, and they are busy just now, I have been very foolish, but my chief fault has . been my generosity. I trusted too much. Please forgive me. Everything I had is yours. Take care of my pictures. For myself I ask nothing, because I am proud.—Yours, Broken-hearted Son.” An extract from a copy of the poems, handed to the coroner by a witness, was also reed, as follows; — O life is such a bauble, Just a trick of fate, A tale already done. Life is but a puppet show. In tawdry tinsel done.

Recording a verdict of suicide while of unsound mind, the coroner said Atkinson had become infatuated with the woman, who deserted him as soon as she found he had no money. It was not an uncommon story, the case of a man becoming infatuated with a woman and ruining himself over her. It was a great pity, as he was a man of wonderful intellect with a very bright future. Convent to Stage

Probably the most famous of London’s models, Dolores has frequently posed for Epstein, the sculptor. Half Spanish, half French, she was born in Barcelona and educated in a French convent.

Soon after leaving school she went to Paris and danced in the Imperial Russian Ballet at the Opera Comique, and also appeared at the Folies Bergeres and in Brussels. Then she came to England, and met Epstein, who persuaded her to become his model. She has also posed for Augustus John, C. R. W. Nevinson and John Flanagan, the Irish portraitist. In 1924 she appeared in a series of tableaux in a revue at the Little. Theatre She was married for the third time at St. Pancres registry office in January, 1926, to an American, Mr. George William Lattimore, a film producer. She gave her age as 32, and was described as Noreen Fournier Schofield Sadler, divorced wife of Mr. R. H. F. P. Sadler. When Mr. Sadler obtained his divorce in 1924 he told the Court that he married Dolores in 1918. She told him, he said, that she was a widow, buf he found she was a divorced woman, and he alleged that he discovered her—on his demobilisation —living with her former husband. Her

first husband was an Army officer. She is said to have taken, her nomine d’art from Swinburne’s “Dolores, Our Lady of Pain,” which poem she is said to recite with great feeling.