Sims, Charles H RA

1873

1928

Charles Sims was born in Islington, London. He was the son of a costume manufacturer. He was lame from infancy and, at the age of fourteen he was placed in the office of a commission agent in Paris with a view to learning French and business practice. He thought of training for a musical career but in 1890 he became a pupil at the National Art Training School, South Kensington (later the Royal College of Art), then at the Académie Julien in Paris. In 1893 he joined the Royal Academy Schools, but he was expelled for a minor breach of discipline. He married the daughter of an artist and endured a period of struggle until his first one-man show at the Leicester Galleries in 1906 brought success and recognition. He was elected Associate of the Royal Academy in 1907, and full Academician in 1915. In 1918, he worked as an official war artist in France. In 1920, he was appointed Keeper of the Royal Academy Schools, a position from which he resigned after six months due to pressure of outside work. His breezy, cheerful outdoor scenes in which children frequently played a role, were evidently at odds with his inner feelings, for he committed suicide by drowning himself in 1928, apparently as the result of depression. Sims was elected to the Garrick Club in 1918 but resigned in 1925.