William Snape Biography

William Snape (1862-1904) was born in Gosport, Hampshire, in 1862.

He was born at Spring Garden Cottage, just outside the town's ramparts and a stone’s throw from the new Gosport railway station that had opened in 1841. His father, Alfred, was an artist and a drawing teacher at Burney’s Academy, a school for aspiring naval & military officers located within the town, where both William and his older brother, Martin, would attend. However, the school probably didn’t suit either brother’s artistic temperaments. and Alfred later deemed the fees a waste of money. Alfred and his wife Sarah appear to have lived fairly comfortably, possibly through inheritance, as Spring Garden Cottage is a reasonably substantial double bay-fronted cottage. They kept one domestic servant and supported six children, all of whom lived at home well into adulthood.

William married Kate in 1887, and they are recorded in the 1891 census as living at 6 Camden Street, Gosport, with two young children, although William continued to paint in the studio at the family home at Spring Garden Cottage. An impressive painter, his best works are fine cottage interiors, which compare favourably with the best of Victorian genre painting. He also painted atmospheric landscapes in and around Gosport and, like his brother Martin, was drawn to the ancient parish of Rowner and the surrounding oak woodlands and heathlands. Some of the countryfolk in his landscapes and cottage interiors reappear, suggesting William had developed bonds and friendships with the inhabitants.

William supplemented his income, always uncertain for artists then as now, with illustration work for periodicals such as "The Girls' Own Paper". His career was blossoming when his life was tragically cut short by an overdose of Chlorodyne when he was just 42 in 1904. This widely available medicine contained laudanum (an alcoholic solution of opium), as well as cannabis and chloroform. It was extremely addictive and commonly used at the time for pain relief and as a remedy for stomach complaints and insomnia. Unfortunately death by overdose, whether accidental or not, was a common occurrence at the time.