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Size:
Height – 40cm
Width – 127cm
Provenance: The Artist’s family
Between 1906 and 1961 Spurrier exhibited nearly 100 works at The Royal Academy and he frequently illustrated magazines such as The
Graphic, Illustrated London News and the Radio Times. He was especially drawn to subjects of dance and the circus and attracted by the patterns
created by brightly coloured clothes and the rhythm afforded by subjects conveying movement. During the First World War he worked with the
Admiralty developing dazzle camouflage for ships. I have made countless pencil notes of all sorts of incidents, and the ideas for my pictures evolve
from them and my imagination. I seldom paint a picture with the subject in front of me but from sketches and memory.’ (quoted by Mary Chamot in The
Modern British Paintings, Drawings and Sculpture, London 1964, II)
We are grateful to James Manning for assistance.
Painter, designer and illustrator, born and died in London. Following his father’s profession of silversmith at first, Spurrier studied during the evening at Heatherley’s School of Fine Art, then at the Gilbert Garett School. From 1900 he became a full-time illustrator, working for such publications as Black and White, The Graphic, Illustrated London News and Radio Times. During the World War I he worked on camouflage of ships for the Admiralty. Exhibited with the RA from 1913, elected RA 1952. He was a member of the PS, 1922-38, showing almost every year. Also showed at RBA, ROI, RSA, Goupil Gallery and RHA. He wrote Black and White and Illustration in Wash and Line. Work held by Tate Gallery, Victoria & Albert Museum and provincial galleries. John Benison, the designer and artist, was his son. In 1993 a show at Paisnel Gallery highlighted Spurrier’s interest in circus and theatrical subjects.
With thanks to artbiogs.co.uk
