Norman WILKINSON
Born in Cambridge, the artist was educated at Berkhamsted, and studied art at Portsmouth and Southsea Schools of Art. He then attended Julius OLSSON's school in St Ives. Here he claimed to have learned virtually all that he knew about art.
In 1919 with two companions from St Ives, Reginald Guy KORTRIGHT and Hugh Percy HEARD, he went to Paris; together they set up a studio and studied figure painting from the nude. In 1923, on behalf of the London Midland and Scottish Railway, he wrote to a number of West Cornwall artists offering a commission to produce tourist poster designs. Most accepted the offer, and the groundbreaking series was created in 1924, which aroused great public interest. He is the author of St Ives: A Brush with Life (Seeley Service, 1969), his autobiography. Later he became President of the RI.
media
Painter of marine subjects, etcher, poster artist
works and access
Works include: his series War at Sea (1939-48)
Access to Work: NMM; IWM; V&A
exhibitions
FIN (155); G; GI (9); L (11); LEI (16); RBA (25); RI (97); ROI (37); RA (115); New Gallery, St Ives Show Day 1947; STISA 1947 (SA) and 47 (W) Touring Shows
memberships
RI (President c1946); STISA 1946-47; ROI; RSMA
references
Brook-Hart
Cross Shining Sands
Hardie (2009) Artists in Newlyn and West Cornwall p353
Johnson & Greutzner
Tovey (2003) Creating A Splash;