School of Art and Design. Source: Picture Sheffield.
Among the Sheffield artists, crafts people and their supporters who are buried here are those who achieved national and international acclaim alongside others who died in poverty. The growth of nineteenth century Sheffield as an industrial centre led to a proliferation of artists’ clubs and societies and new educational opportunities for budding artists. John Ruskin set up the Guild of St George Museum in Walkley in 1871 in response to his admiration for Sheffield iron workers, while Austin Winterbottom among others, recorded the rapidly changing landscape in and around Sheffield. Ruskin also mentored Frank Saltfleet who later specialised in landscape painting, particularly the area around Whitby. Saltfleet’s wife Jean Mitchell was a notable artist in her own right and the daughter of Young Mitchell, one of the first headteachers of the Sheffield School of Design (now part of Sheffield Hallam University).
You can read more about the artists in the Cemetery in the Sheffield General Cemetery Trust’s publication Canvas of Memories and follow the self-guided trail Artists of the Sheffield General Cemetery.
