From 1910 to 1914 he worked in the Transvaal Museum in Pretoria, where he published several scientific papers with the South African herpetologist, John Hewitt, with whom he collected and described a number of southern African and Madagascan genera and species in the early 20th century. He later refused a chair in zoology at a South African university because of his commitment to his ancestral home.[1]
Methuen had studied drawing at Eton, at the Ruskin in Oxford, and with Charles Holmes. In 1927 he attended art classes given by Walter Sickert, which had a permanent effect on his painting style. He established a reputation as a serious artist. His preferred subjects were urban views and outdoor scenes with buildings, animals, and plants, such as the magnolias and orchids he grew at Corsham Court.[2]
In 1939 he rejoined his regiment and served as a captain until 1944 when he was moved to the Procurement and Fine Art branch set up to protect works of art during the invasion of the continent. He later recounted his experiences in his book Normandy Diary. During the War, Methuen also received a number of commissions from the War Artists' Advisory Committee, mainly for scenes painted in the London dockyards.[3]
Four years after the destruction of the premises of the Bath School of Art in 1942, Methuen offered Corsham Court, which during the war had been first the temporary home of Westonbirt School and then a convalescent hospital for officers, to the new Bath Academy of Art under Clifford Ellis. It remained there until 1972; Corsham Court is now used by Bath Spa University.[4]
—; Hewitt, J. (1913). "On a collection of reptiles from Madagascar made during the year 1911". Annals of the Transvaal Museum. 3 (4): 183–193 + plates V–XI. hdl:10520/AJA00411752_897. ISSN0041-1752.
—; Hewitt, J. (1913). "On a collection of Batrachia from Madagascar made during the year 1911". Annals of the Transvaal Museum. 4 (2): 49–64 + plates IX, X.
—; Hewitt, J. (1913). "The Percy Sladen Memorial Expedition to Great Namaqualand, 1912–1913. Records and descriptions of the reptiles and batrachians of the collection". Annals of the Transvaal Museum. 4 (3): 118–145 + plate XIV.
— (1958). An historical account of Corsham Court: the Methuen collection of pictures and the furniture in the state rooms. Corsham, England: Corsham Estates.
— (1970). A catalogue of the Methuen miniatures at Corsham Court, Wilts. Strathmore Press.
^Beolens, B; Watkins, M; Grayson, M (2011). "Methuen". The Eponym Dictionary of Reptiles. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press. p. 177. ISBN978-1-4214-0135-5.
