CHARLES HENRY SIMS RA (BRITISH 1873 - 1928), COMING HOME oil on canvas, signed 49.5cm x 74.5cm Framed. Note: Born in Islington, London, Sims trained at the South Kensington College of Art, before moving to Paris for two years at the Académie Julian. In the need of bursaries to support himself, he moved back to London and enrolled at the Royal Academy School in 1893. In 1895 he was expelled. In 1897 he married Agnes, a daughter of the Scottish painter John MacWhirter. From 1896, he developed an increasingly successful career, first exhibiting The Vine at the Royal Academy in 1896, and selling another painting, Childhood to the Musée du Luxembourg. An expert at portraying sunlit landscapes, he specialised in society portraits and neo-classical fantasies, typically idealised scenes of women, children or fairies in outdoor settings. In 1906 a one-man show at the Leicester Galleries brought him critical and financial success, allowing him to relocate to the rural Fittleworth. In 1910 he was elected a fellow of the Royal Watercolour Society, and in 1915 to the Royal Academy. However, the First World War was a traumatic experience for Sims. In 1914, his eldest son was killed, and he worked for a time as a war artist. His Wikipedia page reveals a life of controversy and fame and he spent time in America before returning to the UK. On 13th April 1928, experiencing hallucinations, paranoia and insomnia, brought about by the horrific scenes he had witnessed as an official war artist and by his son's death, Sims committed suicide by drowning himself in the River Tweed near his home in St. Boswells, Scotland.