La Basse Cour: A fitting tribute after 80 years

On the end wall of our barn hang three watercolour impressions of French scenes, two are of Caen in Normandy and the other is the Place d'Armes in Calais. They are accurate, well-rendered and warm pictures. Not outstanding art perhaps but very competently painted.

The 1931 painting of Caen Cathedral (which was entirely destroyed during Operation Overlord after the D-Day landings) was bought by a young Barbara at a jumble sale for 2s 6d, the other two I purchased at auction in 2008 for Barbara's birthday.

They were painted by a British artist from North Shields near Newcastle called Victor Noble Rainbird and I've been interested in his life and work since I first came across his pictures. He was a prolific artist and lots of people in his local area seem to have a "Rainbird" on the wall.

Impression Caen 1931 - Victor Noble Rainbird
Hanging at La Basse Cour

Rainbird was talented artist before the Great War and joined up and served in the Northumberland Fusiliers, there's an excellent article about his war service produced by Tyne and Wear Museums at this link.

After the war Rainbird picked up his artistic career and his pictures were exhibited at the Laing Museum in Newcastle, the Walker in Liverpool and the RA in London. He visited Holland and, several times, France and our trio are from his French trips.

It appears that Rainbird used his paintings to pay his way through life and often seems to have produced paintings to settle bar bills or pay for his supper. He died in 1936 at the age of 49 and was buried in an unmarked grave, his estate having insufficient money for a memorial. And there his story rested for 77 years.

Impression of Caen Normandy undated - Victor Noble Rainbird
Hanging at La Basse Cour

Inspired by Rainbird's work a small group led by Dave Young set up the Friends of Victor Noble Rainbird to attempt to provide a permanent memorial to the artist at his burial place in Preston Cemetery. I made a small donation early on to this group but the breakthrough came in 2015 with a popular and successful exhibition of Rainbird's paintings at the Old Low Light Heritage centre in North Shields, donations and profits from sales of prints took the fund past the £5000 target. So, on a cold but sunny day on 8th March, 2016 - eighty years to the day after his death - the permanent memorial to Victor Noble Rainbird was unveiled with appropriate military pomp including the playing of The Last Post.