SKU: 11106
Robert Austin
(1895 - 1973)
The Angelus, 1922, original copper plate
£4,400
Robert Austin (1895 - 1973)
£5,850
Size:
Height – 46.5cm
Width – 31cm
1 in stock
Figures resting or sleeping are amongst the subjects that Austin drew consistently. In the domestic family routine which formed the backdrop to his work, Austin found an endless source of inspiration. Drapery was a subject that he was particularly drawn to.
Austin worked as an Official War Artist between 1940 and 1944, whilst he was based in Ambleside with The Royal College of Art, which was evacuated there. Mahoney and Percy Horton were among the male staff. The students were housed in two hotels, men at The Queens and women at The Salutation.
In spite of requisitioning two hotels, conditions for the Royal College of Art students were cramped. The majority of space was required for accommodation leaving precious little room for the studios which were mostly set up in lower rooms and suffered from lack of light.
The majority of Austin’s war work is in the Imperial War Museum.
For a fuller account of this period see biographical essay, pp and The Artist as Evacuee, The Royal College of Art in the Lake District, 1940-45, Dove Cottage and the Wordsworth Museum, Grasmere 1987.
Printmaker and draughtsman, born in Leicester. He studied at the School of Art there and at the Royal College of Art, 1914-16 and 1919-22, winning the Rome Scholarship for engraving in the latter year. He taught engraving at the Royal College of Art, 1927-44, becoming Professor in the Department of Graphic Design, 1948-55. Showed with RWS, of which he was a member and President; RE, of which he was a member; and the RA, to which he was elected in 1949. Austin was a meticulous craftsman-engraver and a vigorous draughtsman, as his series of drawings of Women’s Auxiliary Air Force and ballooning activities done during World War II shows. The Tate Gallery holds his work.
The Ashmolean Museum, Oxford, organised an exhibition of his work in 1980.
More recently he was the subject of two shows at the Fine Art Society plc (2001 and 2002), the latter organised in conjunction with Liss Fine Art Ltd.
