I became Professor Sir Lawrence Gowing's agent in the late 80's and,since his death,have been agent for his Estate. It is a great privilege to represent such an eminent painter, who was also a leading world authority on the history of art.
Lawrence was introduced to painting by Maurice Field at The Downs School, Colwall,Worcestershire from 1927 - 1932.He later met William Coldstream, and in 1936 became his student.In 1937,Coldstream founded the Euston Road School together with Claude Rogers and Victor Pasmore. Lawrence Gowing and Graham Bell thus became important members of the Euston Road circle. Later, Coldstream was appointed Slade Professor of Fine Art, University College London, 1945 - 1975, and was considered to be the chief upholder of the Euston Road School tradition. So it was neither surprising that the passion to paint should have enveloped Lawrence Gowing, nor that he should have succeeded his mentor and been appointed Slade Professor of Fine Art, University College, London,from 1975 to 1985.
The amount of work remaining in Lawrence's Estate is not huge and nearly all the paintings can be seen on our website. They are however, of superb quality, having been created by an artist one of whose greatest passions was painting sous-bois. There is a small gem-like collection of drawings, and the balance are oils. Apart from several large, extremely painterly portraits, the rest are landscapes executed over the last fifty years of his life. These are all tranquil, reflective pieces which one could easily look at every day as if looking out through a window. There is something very satisfying about sitting down in a room with such beautiful paintings on the walls- you immediately feel at ease and able to let your mind wander through that wood, down that lane, or up through the trees to the sunlight.
This, of course, was Lawrence's ' Eden '.
Copyright www.highgateart.com 2012
Of these works, many were in the artist's large
Arts Council Retrospective at The Serpentine Gallery 1983, the Exhibition then went on Tour to
The Hatton Gallery, Newcastle, May - June '83
Ferens Art Gallery, Hull, June - July '83
Plymouth City Art Gallery, July - August '83.
Many were also included in one or more of the following exhibitions:
1965 Marlborough Fine Art.
1982 Waddington Galleries.
1990 " Images of Fifty Years " at The Phoenix Galleries, Lavenham, Suffolk & London.
1996 " Paintings in Sussex 1981-1990 " - The Charleston Gallery, East Sussex.
2001 " Connecting the Centuries " at Highgate Fine Art, January - February 2001.
2007 " Charles Cundall,Frederick Gore,Lawrence Gowing,Flavia Irwin and Gwyther Irwin "- Highgate
Fine Art January 17th to February 24th 2007
Summary Biography:
1918 Born 21 April Stamford Hill London.
1927-1932 The Downs School, Colwall, Worcs. introduced to painting by Maurice Field.
1936 Pupil of William Coldstream
1937-38 Studied at School of Drawing and Painting, Euston Road.
1939-45 Conscientious objector; lived with Julia Strachey(whom he married in 1952), painting in Wiltshire and London.
1944-1947 Taught at Camberwell School of Art.
1948-1958 Professor,Fine Art,University of Durham;
(King's College,Newcastle-upon-Tyne).
1953-60,1961-4 Trustee, Tate Gallery.
1958-65 Principal, Chelsea School of Art.
1960-88 Trustee, National Portrait Gallery.
1965-67 Keeper of British Collection, Tate Gallery and Deputy Director, Tate Gallery ;
1966 Married Jenny Wallis ( three daughters )
1967-75 Professor of Fine Art, Leeds University
1970-72,1977-78 Member of Arts Council;
1975-85 Slade Professor of Fine Art, University College London.
1976-81 Trustee, British Museum;
1977-78 Visiting Professor of Art History,
University of Pennsylvania.
1978 Elected A.R.A.
1981 Suffered an aortic aneurism, January -
February. Spent the summer painting in East Sussex and annually thereafter (1982-1990)
1982 Knighthood
1985 Retired from Slade School.
1986-87 Samuel H Kress Professor, CASVA,
National Gallery of Art,Washington D.C.
1987-1989 Curatorial Chairman,Phillips
Collection, Washington D.C.
1989 Elected Member, Royal Academy.
1989 Recurrence of aneurism, retired from
his Washington posts.
1989 Chairman,Exhibitions Committee, Royal Academy. Minor car accident, September.
1990 Exhibitions 'Images from 50 years' at
Phoenix Gallery Lavenham April - Phoenix Galleries Chelsea & Highgate May
1991 Died 5 February, London
As a world famous art-historian, Lawrence was in constant demand to authenticate works by Renoir, Matisse, Vermeer, Cézanne, Turner for some of the world's greatest collectors and dealers, often being flown out to distant locations to see them.
His great BBC2 Television Series "Three Painters" broadcast during the five years 1984-88
1984 - Masaccio, Vermeer, Cézanne
1986 - Breugel, Goya, Matisse
1988 - Giotto, Rembrandt, Turner
had made him a household word, both in this country and abroad, whilst his published monographs on Renoir, Vermeer, Cézanne, Turner, Matisse, Freud and The Originality of Thomas Jones had also made him a leading world authority on all these artists.
Whilst Chairman of the RA Exhibitions Committee, he organised their first great Monet exhibition, raising more money for the Royal Academy than any previous exhibition, as it drew enormous crowds.
One of Lawrence's favoured places for painting was sous-bois; starting with the early pictures in Sussex in the '40's, he also painted regularly in the Berkshire woodlands and abroad throughout the 50's and 60's, and later both abroad in France, Italy, Greece, and in the beautiful East Sussex countryside around Charleston, where he painted every Summer for the last ten years of his life. He died in London at the age of 72 in February 1991.
One of his favourite views -" Lane above Tilton " was both a Royal Academy 1991 Memorial exhibit, and also featured in the " Lawrence Gowing Paintings in Sussex 1981-90 " Exhibition at The Charleston Gallery in June 1996.
Paddy Kitchen wrote this review of " Images from Fifty Years " (Phoenix Galleries, Lavenham and London, April 1990) which was printed in the Spring 1990 Edition of RA Magazine:
"This anthology starts with Water Meadows,Chilton Foliat, 1940 and ends with recent studies of the landscape near Charleston, East Sussex; it reflects unbroken preoccupations - philosophical, emotional and aesthetic - relating to Lawrence Gowing's belief that "the subject that surrounds and envelops the painter, who has no choice but to give himself up to it, still seems to me to be the irresistible reason for painting."
The figure paintings, still lifes and landscapes gathered together in this exhibition might appear to be the work of a careful man, steering an honourable course set by two indelible influences - Cézanne and Coldstream. But if the hazardously experimental images of his own body shown in his 1983 Serpentine Retrospective Exhibition had been included in this show, Gowing would have shown himself to be the daring painter that he really is. When I visited his studio,the work in progress was a still life of the busts of Julia and Lytton Strachey. He talked of experiencing a particular landscape in boyhood which he recognises as "....my kind of Eden: a lane through hazel woods with a shaley stream running through the middle."
Versions of that Eden have been found in later life and studies of various purlieus are in the exhibition - secluded places that provide the freedom to dream and roam.One might argue that Gowing's involvement in criticism, teaching and curatorship has been at the expense of his ambition as a painter; but the man of words cannot be separated from the artist immersed in the visual complexities of hazels, sunlight and sky. In the annals of requited passions, Lawrence Gowing's love affair with painting, ALL painting, will be recorded."