Society of Painters in Tempera

The Society of Painters in Tempera was established in 1901 and its early exhibitions were staged at the Carfax Gallery located in the heart of London's St. James' district. One of the founder-members was Christiana Herringham, an influential figure in the Edwardian art world, who was an expert on tempera and translator of Cennino Cennini's 'Il Libro dell' Arte' (1899) the textbook of the movement. There were about fifty artist-members of the Society in its brief heyday (until about 1909) and three tempera exhibitions were held. Founder members included Joseph Southall, Robert Bateman, Holman Hunt, George Watts, Walter Crane, Mary Sargant-Florence and J. D. Batten following an exhibition at Leighton House Museum. Other exhibiting artists comprised Roger Fry, Edwin Austin Abbey, Maxwell Armfield and Robert Anning Bell. The work produced by members of the society ranged in style from late Pre-Raphaelite, as in Batten's 'Pandora' of 1913, to the more realistic approach of Southall's 'Corporation Street, Birmingham' of March 1914.

An exhibition of the members' work was held at Whitechapel Art Gallery in 1930. The Society of Painters in Tempera, later changed its name to the Society of Mural Decorators and Painters in Tempera, publishing papers between 1901 and 1954 which were contained in four volumes. These were largely technical and theoretical in content. In 1997 the Society of Tempera Painters was established following the decline of the original Society. The Society is now well established both in the United States of America and in the United Kingdom. Largely ignored as a medium today, the main high profile practitioner using tempera is Royal Academician David Tindle.