A painting unearthed in a North Wales attic in North Wales is a forgotten work by an artist forever linked to the Beatles. The late Arthur Ballard was an influential art teacher who taught John Lennon and who talked Stuart Sutcliffe, the fifth Beatle, out of a career in music.
Either side of an accomplished career at the Liverpool College of Art, he lived in Gwynedd and Denbighshire. Regarded as Liverpool’s “unsung art genius”, he was said by Cynthia Lennon to have “taught John to drink” but who saved him from being expelled from the college.
In the 1950s, Ballard was considered one of the most promising artists of his generation. One of his earlier works, from 1945, was discovered among a dusty collection of paintings assembled over many decades by a former surveyor and builder now living in Rhos on Sea, Conwy.
Warwick Farrell, now 93 and a widower of 10 years, moved to the resort from a property on the banks of the Menai Strait. “I’m in the throes of clearing out,” he said. “I have quite a few paintings, including several of the Menai Strait, and among them I came across a work by Arthur Ballard.
“I must have had it for decades, perhaps 30-40 years, and I can’t remember how I acquired it. At one time we lived in Ormskirk, so perhaps it was from an auction there. It’s of a continental scene, about 3ft by 2ft. It is slightly strangely drawn, with curious castellated buildings, but I think it’s rather good.”
Born in Liverpool, Ballard studied at the city’s College of Art and, between in 1935–36, in Paris at the Académie de la Grande Chaumière. He returned to Paris in 1957–58 under a Liverpool Corporation release scheme for teachers.
As several of his paintings feature houses and rooftops from the French capital, Mr Farrell’s work is assumed to be from there. Given that Ballard served in the forces from 1939-45, he may have been in a position to capture post-liberation views of Paris. Join the North Wales Live WhatsApp community group where you can get the latest stories delivered straight to your phone
Ballard’s signature on Warwick Farrell’s painting, indicating a date of 1945 or 1946
(Image: Warwick Farrell)
Early in his career, he painted abstracts of the landscapes surrounding his cottage in Caernarfon. He and wife Barbara settled in Meols in Wirral after World War II, and when she died, Ballard married a student, Carol, at the height of Beatlemania in 1966. A former boxer, he was known for his charismatic presence.
His enlightened approach to teaching, and the college’s Bohemian atmosphere, stimulated Lennon’s creativity. With Stuart Sutcliffe, The Beatles’ early bass player, he often went to Ye Cracke pub after – or instead of – lectures. Sometimes the pub’s War Office snug was used for tutorials.
Ballard’s biographer Peter Davies told the Liverpool Echo in 1996: “I spoke to Cynthia Lennon and she said it was Arthur who taught John to drink.” Outside the pub is an English Heritage blue plaque stating: “John Lennon, 1940-1980, Peed against this wall 47 times between 1959-1961”.
John Lennon outside Liverpool’s Ye Cracke Pub when he often met up with Arthur Ballard and Stuart Sutcliffe
(Image: Liverpool Echo)
Lennon’s scholarly output was less successful – but Ballard saw something in him. The college recalled the moment he came across Lennon’s notebook – it was stuffed full of caricatures of him, other tutors and fellow students, all with descriptions and verse. “It was the wittiest thing I’d ever seen in my life,” said Ballard.
This may have saved Lennon from expulsion. “Arthur was a great supporter of students from impoverished backgrounds,” said Peter Davies. “The college was threatening to throw John Lennon out. Arthur found some of his satirical cartoons and used these to defend John. Arthur also helped him through difficult emotional times.”
Despite this, Lennon was to become the college’s most celebrated failure. At the end of his second year, John failed his exam in Life Drawing and Lettering. Typically, he celebrated his result at an end-of-term party in Ballard’s room.
His tutor kept a hand-written list of the class results and in December 2019, it was offered for auction by Bonhams with an estimate of £1,500-£2,000. Fellow students on the list included Cynthia Powell, who went on to marry John in 1963. Also there was Derek Hodkin, who owned a tape recorder and who, in November 1958, used it to record John, Paul and George rehearsing at Paul McCartney’s home. He subsequently became the group’s manager, if only for a few months.
Lennon’s nonsense drawings and poems captured Ballard’s attention
(Image: Liverpool Echo)
Also taken under Ballard’s wing was Stuart Sutcliffe, regarded very much as his star pupil, and with good reason. Sutcliffe was the original bass guitarist in The Silver Beetles before quitting to focus on his painting, dying eight months before the group had their first hit.
By then he’d already established himself as one of the country’s most exciting young painters, pioneering the new concept of pop art. In the 1994 film Backbeat, about the Beatles’ early days in Hamburg, Ballard was played as the man who persuaded Sutcliffe to follow a career in art rather than join a band.
Ultimately, the charismatic art teacher was to be overshadowed by his former pupils. Adrian Henri, the poet, artist and contemporary of Ballard, told the Liverpool Echo that he suffered from the connection. He said: “Eventually he got stereotyped as the man who discovered John Lennon and was better known for that than anything.”
Stuart Sutcliffe was Ballard’s protégé
(Image: Mirrorpix/Getty Images)
After retiring, Ballard returned to North Wales to live in Maerdy, near Corwen, where he continued to paint. Not too far away was Cynthia Lennon, who lived in Ruthin in the late 70s early 80s, the couple’s only son Julian attending Ruthin School.
Even here he couldn’t entirely escape Lennon’s shadow. Although he wouldn’t have known it at the time, near his home was a statue of one of one of the rock star’s distant ancestors. In his 2019 book, Richard Edmunds describes tracing Lennon’s family tree back to Welsh icon Owain Glyndŵr, whose horseback figure is celebrated in Corwen’s town square.
Lennon’s family roots, through his mother’s side, can also be found in St Asaph, Llysfaen, Rhyl and Llanwnda. His great grandmother Mary Morris, a farmer’s daughter from Llysfaen, died eight years before John Lennon was born, still refusing to speak English, labelling it the “devil’s tongue”. She insisted all her family regularly attend the Welsh Calvinistic Methodist Church in Toxteth, Liverpool.
Ballard’s final paintings, from the late 1980s, are a collection of watercolours of bridges near his home. By then, his work was being featured in the collections of major public galleries on Merseyside.
He died in 1994 from Alzheimers Disease. Almost two decades later, in 2013, one of his mid-1950s works, “Welsh Shepherds”, fetched £3,250 when sold at Bonhams Chester.
Mr Farrell isn’t expecting much from his Ballard painting but he would like it to find a good home. “I did think of getting an old Liverpool phone directory to try and find one of his relatives, see if they’re interested,” he said.
“But it was a thankless task and I was unaware of his North Wales connections.” Instead the painting is likely to go to auction. Sign up for the North Wales Live newsletter sent twice daily to your inbox
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