Lawrence Gowing

Sir Lawrence Gowing (21 April 1918 - 5 February 1991) was a British artist, writer, curator, and teacher. Initially recognized as a portrait and landscape painter, he quickly rose to prominence as an art educator, writer, and, eventually, curator and museum trustee. As a student of art history he was largely self-taught. [ [http://www.dictionaryofarthistorians.org/gowingl.htm Biography in the Dictionary of Art Historians] ]

Sir Lawrence was born Lawrence Burnett Gowing to Horace Gowing, a draper, and his wife, Luisa. Born in Stoke Newington and raised in London, his first painting of note, "Mare Street, Hackney", made reference to his father's shop. After attending the Downs School at Colwall, Herefordshire and Leighton Park School, in 1938 he enrolled in the Euston Road School, where he studied with William Coldstream.

A Quaker, he was a conscientious objector during World War II. [Biography, DAH] In the 1940s he became recognised as a painter, and for the rest of his life was sought after to paint casual but quintessential portraits of the eminent, among whom were Clement Attlee, Lord Halifax, and Edgar Adrian.

He began teaching in 1948, first as Professor of Fine Art, at King's College, University of Durham at Newcastle upon Tyne (now Newcastle University) from 1948-58, then as Principal of Chelsea School of Art from 1958-65, as Professor of Fine Arts at Leeds University, finally serving as principal of the Slade School of Fine Art at University of London from 1975-85. Concurrently, he authored a number of art monographs and catalogues on masters such as Vermeer, William Hogarth, J.M.W. Turner, Cézanne, Matisse, and Lucian Freud. Among the major exhibitions he organized were those for Turner at the Museum of Modern Art in 1966, Matisse in New York City in 1966 and London in 1968, and Cézanne, which traveled in 1988-89 from the Royal Academy to the Musée d'Orsay and the National Gallery of Art.

Sir Lawrence was a trustee of the Tate Gallery, the National Portrait Gallery, and the British Museum, and was a member of the Arts Council of Great Britain. In 1978 he was elected an associate of the Royal Academy, and was made honorary curator of its collections in 1985. Beginning in the 1960s he traveled to the United States to serve as Kress Professor at the National Gallery in Washington, D.C., and was also curator of the Phillips Collection in Washington.

Knighted in 1982, in 1985 he was made a chevalier in the Order of Arts and Letters in France.

A first marriage, to Julia Strachey, ended in divorce. In 1966 he married Jenny Wallis. Sir Lawrence had three daughters.

He died of heart failure at the age of 72.

References

[http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9D0CE0DE173EF934A35751C0A967958260&sec=&spon=&pagewanted=print New York Times obituary by John Russell, February 7, 1991.]

External links

* [http://www.tate.org.uk/servlet/ArtistWorks?cgroupid=999999961&artistid=1197&page=1 Paintings in the Tate collection]
* [http://www.npg.org.uk/live/search/person.asp?search=ss&sText=lawrence+gowing&LinkID=mp01845&role=art Paintings in the National Portrait Gallery]