William Hounsom Byles - Artist

William Hounsom Byles was born in England in 1872 and lived most of his life in London, exhibiting at the Royal Academy between 1894 and 1916. Mostly known as a sporting painter usually associated with horse painting, and illustrator, Byles was also a competent landscape, portrait and figurative artist. He was made a member of the Royal Society of British Artists in 1901. His paintings were also exhibited at The Royal Society of Artists, Birmingham, The Leicester Gallery, London, and The Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool. He arrived in New Zealand in 1906 and is known to have exhibited at the Auckland Society of Arts, Canterbury Society of Arts from 1907 to 1916, the New Zealand Academy of Fine Arts from 1912 and the Otago Art Society.