Joseph Skipsey, The Collier Poet

Description

A portrait of Joseph Skipsey 'The Collier Poet' (1832-1903) by Johanna Koster (1869-1944). Skipsey was born in Percy Main, North Tyneside. His father - an overman at Percy Main Colliery - was shot by a constable during a strike and Joseph started to work in the pits at the age of seven, to provide for the family. He taught himself to read and write; Pope, Milton, Blake and Shakespeare are among the authors whose work he read. He published his first collection of poems in 1859, at the age of 27. Skipsey's work became well-known nationally, admirers including Oscar Wilde and Dante Gabriel Rossetti. In 1889 some of the leading artistic figures of the day, including Robert Browning, Bram Stoker, Alfred Lord Tennyson and William Morris, sponsored Skipsey to be Custodian of Shakespeare's Birthplace in Stratford-upon-Avon. He held this position until 1891, when he returned to the Northumberland pits. The Dutch artist Johanna Koster studied in Amsterdam, Rotterdam, Paris and Brussels and was a member of the Pulchri Studio, an artists' society. She produced this portrait in 1894, a couple of years after Skipsey left Shakespeare's House., The annual report of the Trust's Executive Committee 1889-90 states 'In response to the advertisement framed at the last Annual Meeting, and afterwards issued, for Custodians of Shakespeare's Birthplace, upwards of 140 applications were received and considered and upon 24th June [1889] your committee appointed Mr and Mrs Joseph Skipsey, formerly Custodians of the Durham College of Science Newcastle-upon-Tyne, to succeed the Misses Chattaway'.