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Portrait honours a 'length man'
Artist Philip Naviasky was born in Leeds in 1894 and went on to study at Leeds School of Art, followed by a Royal Exhibition at South Kensington's Royal College of Art.
Naviasky, of Polish extraction, worked a lot in Spain, the south of France, the Balearic Isles and Morocco and examples of his works are in permanent collections in art galleries around Britain.
His portraits present a formidable list and include the famous Lord Nuffield portrait done in the industrialist's office at the height of the Morris Motors success story.
Other famous faces to sit for Naviasky were Lord Howard de Walden, Ramsay Macdonald, Lord Moynihan and Lord Brotherton and the artist frequently exhibited at the Royal Academy, royal Scottish Academy the Royal Society of Portrait Painters.
But Naviasky didn't paint the rich and famous exclusively. He got humble souls in ordinary jobs to take a seat. One was a Leeds Corporation gardener called Jim Anderson, whose job was to look after the grass verges along Scott Hall Road. Jim would have been called a "length man" – someone who looked after a length of road.
That's how Naviasky got to hear about Jim…the artist lived on Scott Hall Road in the 1950s when he painted the portrait.
Now last year – and I apologise for the delay in bringing this to the attention of the Yorkshire Diary gang – William Anderson, Jim's son, was in touch with the YEP.
No one in the family has ever seen the original, the only glimpse they've had is of a reproduction carried in the Yorkshire Illustrated magazine in May, 1953.
Despite his best efforts, Jim has still not located the original: "Perhaps it is sitting in someone's attic somewhere, probably in the Leeds or Yorkshire area.
"The family agree that from the reproduction the artist created an excellent likeness of my father."
Have you got Jim's portrait or do you know where it can be seen? William lives at Tykes Neuk, The Knells, Houghton, Carlisle CA6 4JG.
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Weather for Leeds
Saturday 26 May 2012
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