Baker – a painter, illustrator, poet and art teacher – was born in Prestwich, Manchester, early in 1871. His father was George Baker, a lace merchant, and his Welsh mother Mary Catherine (née Howell) of Bridgend, Glamorgan, in south Wales. They had married there in late 1868 and also had a younger daughter, Mary Catherine Helen (‘Nellie’), herself later an artist and teacher: two other children died in infancy. George subsequently adopted ‘Howell-Baker’ as a working surname for artistic-signature reasons and wrote magazine pieces and poetry under the pseudonym ‘G.H. Rekab’ (Baker in reverse). Though primarily a graphic artist and illustrator he also painted significant works in oil, did watercolours and some wood-carving, and was remembered as an inspiring art teacher.
The family latterly lived in Bridgend where George Baker senior was killed in an accident in 1906. Although not trained as a teacher, his daughter Mary then had to start a small infants’ school to support herself. George’s own health was precarious and, despite his early artistic success, he suffered a nervous breakdown in 1917 and died aged 48 at Bridgend on 19th September 1919, survived by his mother, sister and a fiancée, Lillie Abbot. She subsequently moved to Cincinnati, where the Cincinnati Public Library holds an informative scrapbook of his graphic work and related notes.
The only oil painting by Baker in a UK public collection is Ewenny Priory, outside Bridgend, now in the National Museum of Wales. The Glynn Vivian Gallery has eight prints, two drawings and a watercolour of Carrickfergus Castle: four of these, including the last, were gifts from Baker to Swansea early in 1916.
Summarised from Art UK’s Art Detective discussion ‘Can we find out more about the artist G. Howell Baker?’, which resulted in a more detailed Wikipedia summary of the artist’s life and work by Andy Mabbett (see G. Howell-Baker).
Text source: Art Detective
