Skeolan, Peter

Introduction:

Skeolan was an artist of the 1830s and 40s who appears to have worked for a period of around 20 years. His work is of average quality and rather typical style for the period, making identification difficult.

P Skeolan appears to have been a travelling artist who worked primarily in the north of England. Trade labels place him in Halifax, Manchester and Liverpool, though it seems likely that he worked a much wider circle of towns and cities. Nothing else is known of his life. Skeolan worked with cut silhouettes for approximately 20 years. Both a stencil and a trade label are known. On the one trade label the phrase ‘Skeolan’s Gallery’ is used, perhaps implying that he employed other artists in a gallery setting. Pieces are framed in papier-mache and maple.

A relatively good amount of Skeolan’s work has survived. It is of average quality, with, as Joll asserts, little to distinguish it from contemporary cut work. Profiles are either in plain black, with such details as shirt-collars and cravats left white, or embellished with gold. The gold painting is not always consistent, and sometimes quite poor. He typically uses a reddish-brown background with profiles set against foliage or hills. Future pieces by Skeolan are likely to be very variable in quality and best identified by their stencil or label rather than style.