Harold Speed

Harold Speed was a British portrait and landscape painter, who also wrote on art. Initially studying architecture at the Royal College of Art in 1887, Speed turned to painting, and won a gold medal for life school studies in 1890. He continued his training at the Royal Academy Schools from 1891-96, where in 1893 he was awarded a gold medal and a travelling scholarship that took him to Belgium, France, Italy and Spain.

Speed exhibited his work at the Royal Academy for 50 years beginning in 1893, and became a Member of the Royal Society of Portrait Painters in 1895. He was the author of a number of books on art including The Science and Practice of Drawing (1913), The Science and Practice of Oil Painting (1924) and What is the Good of Art? (1936).

The Trout Stream could not be identified; however, Speed created a known painting under the title Salmon Stream in about 1920.