Louise Rayner - Artist

Louise Rayner was born in Matlock Bath, Derbyshire in 1832. Both of her parents were artists, and her father Samuel Rayner exhibited a painting at the Royal Academy when he was 15 years old. Several of her siblings were also artists. Louise studied painting from 15 years of age.

She exhibited her first painting at The Royal Academy in 1852, an oil painting entitled 'The Interior of Haddon Chapel'. However it was as a watercolour artist that she became most well known. She exhibited for over 50 years at various organisations, including the Society of Lady Artists, The Royal Academy, the Royal Watercolour Society and the Royal Society of British Artists. She specialised in highly detailed street scenes, which remain popular as prints and on jigsaw puzzles.

She lived with her sister Margaret in Chester, Cheshire but travelled extensively during the summers of the 1870s and 1880s around Britain. She painted highly detailed street scenes of towns and cities during the Victorian period. In around 1910 she moved with her sister Margaret to live in Tunbridge Wells. She is known to have painted at least one scene of The Pantiles in Tunbridge Wells, which was sold by Christie’s in recent years.

Margaret died in 1920 and Louise died in St. Leonards in 1924, aged 92 yrs. She had lived at 60 Southwater Road, St. Leonards-on-Sea. Louise Rayner's work is in many collections, but the Grosvenor Museum in Chester possesses the largest public collection, consisting of 23 of her watercolours.

She was buried on the 11th October 1924 with her sister Margaret in Tunbridge Wells Cemetery. Sadly their graves are unmarked.