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William Coldstream
Sir William Menzies Coldstream, CBE (28 February 1908 – 18 February 1987) was an English realist painter and a long-standing art teacher.
Coldstream was born at Belford, Northumberland, in northern England, the second son of country doctor George Probyn Coldstream and his wife Susan Jane Lilian, daughter of Maj. Robert Mercer-Tod, of the 43rd Regiment.
His mother's family were Scottish landed gentry. He grew up in London, where he was privately educated, then studied at the Slade School of Fine Art between 1926 and 1929. In 1931 he joined the London Artists' Association and then, two years later, the London Group.
In 1934, Coldstream joined the GPO Film Unit to make documentary films with John Grierson. During his time with the GPO, Coldstream worked alongside W. H. Auden, Benjamin Britten and Barnett Freedman but also continued to paint. In 1937, with some financial support from Kenneth Clark, Coldstream returned to painting on a full-time basis. Later that year, he co-founded the Euston Road School with Graham Bell, Victor Pasmore and Claude Rogers, having previously been involved in the short-lived objective abstraction movement.
Notable among his paintings of this period is the portrait of Inez Pearn (at that time married to Stephen Spender), which has been called 'a masterpiece of analytical realism' and which was said to have needed some forty sittings. Coldstream's earlier years were characterised by a dedicated engagement with socialist ideals, and by the pursuit of a non-elitist form of art. To this end, he supported the Mass Observation social survey of Britain and participated in their 1938 painting trip to Bolton.
At the start of World War II Coldstream enlisted in the Royal Artillery before transferring to the Royal Engineers. At first he served as a gunner with a training regiment near Dover and then, from 1940 until 1943 was a camouflage officer with Camouflage Command in Farnham and later in Bristol.
In 1943, the War Artists Advisory Committee, WWAC, offered Coldstream a full-time commission which he accepted, having previously declined to work for the Committee. He was stationed in Cairo with an Indian transport unit and painted four portraits of individuals there. From Cairo he travelled to Italy, painting buildings in Capua, Rimini and Florence. Due to his slow means of working, Coldstream only produced nine pictures during his WAAC commission. He also painted Helen Darbishire in her role as principal of Somerville College, Oxford.
In November 1945, he became a visiting teacher at Camberwell School of Arts and Crafts, and later its professor. In 1949 he returned to lead the Slade School as principal, and professor of Fine Art. Under his direction the Slade achieved an international reputation.
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William Coldstream
Sir William Menzies Coldstream, CBE (28 February 1908 – 18 February 1987) was an English realist painter and a long-standing art teacher.
Coldstream was born at Belford, Northumberland, in northern England, the second son of country doctor George Probyn Coldstream and his wife Susan Jane Lilian, daughter of Maj. Robert Mercer-Tod, of the 43rd Regiment.
His mother's family were Scottish landed gentry. He grew up in London, where he was privately educated, then studied at the Slade School of Fine Art between 1926 and 1929. In 1931 he joined the London Artists' Association and then, two years later, the London Group.
In 1934, Coldstream joined the GPO Film Unit to make documentary films with John Grierson. During his time with the GPO, Coldstream worked alongside W. H. Auden, Benjamin Britten and Barnett Freedman but also continued to paint. In 1937, with some financial support from Kenneth Clark, Coldstream returned to painting on a full-time basis. Later that year, he co-founded the Euston Road School with Graham Bell, Victor Pasmore and Claude Rogers, having previously been involved in the short-lived objective abstraction movement.
Notable among his paintings of this period is the portrait of Inez Pearn (at that time married to Stephen Spender), which has been called 'a masterpiece of analytical realism' and which was said to have needed some forty sittings. Coldstream's earlier years were characterised by a dedicated engagement with socialist ideals, and by the pursuit of a non-elitist form of art. To this end, he supported the Mass Observation social survey of Britain and participated in their 1938 painting trip to Bolton.
At the start of World War II Coldstream enlisted in the Royal Artillery before transferring to the Royal Engineers. At first he served as a gunner with a training regiment near Dover and then, from 1940 until 1943 was a camouflage officer with Camouflage Command in Farnham and later in Bristol.
In 1943, the War Artists Advisory Committee, WWAC, offered Coldstream a full-time commission which he accepted, having previously declined to work for the Committee. He was stationed in Cairo with an Indian transport unit and painted four portraits of individuals there. From Cairo he travelled to Italy, painting buildings in Capua, Rimini and Florence. Due to his slow means of working, Coldstream only produced nine pictures during his WAAC commission. He also painted Helen Darbishire in her role as principal of Somerville College, Oxford.
In November 1945, he became a visiting teacher at Camberwell School of Arts and Crafts, and later its professor. In 1949 he returned to lead the Slade School as principal, and professor of Fine Art. Under his direction the Slade achieved an international reputation.