Paul Jacob Naftel 1817-1891

Born in Guernsey, Naftel was the son of a clock and watch maker who also kept a shop selling artists? materials and prints. He showed an early aptitude for art and appears to have been largely self-taught. His early subject matter was Channel Island views until a visit to Wales in the late 1840s broadened his horizons. From 1847 until 1870 he was the drawing master at Elizabeth College, the main school in Guernsey. He exhibited almost seven hundred pictures at the Society of Painters in Water-colours from 1850 onwards. In 1870 he moved to London where he continued to exhibit and built a successful practice as a drawing teacher. He travelled widely in Britain as well as visiting Switzerland in 1851, Italy between 1860 and 1866 and Spain in 1870 to paint the total solar eclipse in December of that year. His work is characterised by bright, strong colours and a lavish use of bodycolour.

His second wife was Isabel Naftel (c.1832?1912), the daughter of the artist Octavius Oakley, and she was also a successful artist, as was their daughter Maud Naftel (1856?1890) who was well known as a flower painter.