In Focus: The war artist who taught Hockney, and whose reputation is only going to grow

Huon Mallalieu takes a look at Leonard Rosoman, whose quirky style and unusual career path have left him impossible to pigeon hole, and who is the subject of a show at Browse & Darby.

Swimming Pool, Key West by Leonard Rosoman
Swimming Pool, Key West by Leonard Rosoman. 1996, 18in by 26in, acrylic on paper.
(Image credit: ©Francis Ware – www.fware.co.uk)
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I am fairly sure that Leonard Rosoman RA (1913–2012) was the last surviving Second World War Official Artist. As well as painting from his own experience as a fire-fighter during the Blitz, he was on an aircraft carrier in the Pacific and at Hong Kong after liberation.

Later, he painted fine murals for the Festival of Britain and in the Royal Academy restaurant and Lambeth Palace chapel. He was a good portraitist and he taught at Chelsea and the Royal College of Art, where David Hockney was among his pupils.

On hearing that you might be tempted to glance at the top of this page and think that Hockney’s swimming pool paintings were inspired by Rosoman, whose 18in by 26in acrylic on paper Swimming Pool, Key West is pictured here. That’s not the case, unfortunately: this image was painted in 1996, so one cannot say that it inspired Hockney’s Californian pools, one of which recently set a record at auction for a painting by a living artist.

Rosoman had a quirky style of his own and can’t be lumped in with any school or faction; as the art historian Tanya Harrod has written, ‘he had a uniquely strange vision that from the late 1950s onwards that conflated pop art and Victorian problem pictures’.

I think that, deservedly, his reputation will only grow. Browse & Darby of Cork Street, W1 represent his estate and until May 31 will show paintings and works on paper from what was his private collection, including some of the celebrated works based on John Osborne’s censor-defying play A Patriot for Me.

As the dealer says, the exhibition ‘includes portraits of the artist and his circle of friends and associates, providing an introduction not just to his oeuvre but also to his life and times’.

Leonard Rosoman’s work is on show at Browse & Darby until May 31 — see www.browseanddarby.co.uk for more details.

Battle of The Somme: The work of Muirhead Bone, Britain’s official war artist during the First World War (Image via ©Country Life Picture Library)

(Image credit: Battle of The Somme: The work of Muirhead Bone, Britain’s official war artist during the First World War (Image via ©Country Life Picture Library))

The unique and extraordinary images of the First World War created by Britain's first-ever official war artist

John Spencer-Churchill's Dunkirk from the Bray Dunes, May 29, 1940. Image courtesy of Andrew Sim / www.simfineart.com

Credit: John Spencer-Churchill's <i>Dunkirk from the Bray Dunes, May 29, 1940</i>. Image courtesy of Andrew Sim / www.simfineart.com

In Focus: The painting by Churchill's nephew that gives a unique view of the evacuation of Dunkirk

A unique painting of the evacuation of Dunkirk by Winston Churchill's nephew was recently unearthed. Huon Mallalieu takes a look

Huon Mallalieu
Huon Mallalieu

After four years at Christie’s cataloguing watercolours, historian Huon Mallalieu became a freelance writer specialising in art and antiques, and for a time the property market. He has been a ‘regular casual’ with The Times since 1976, art market writer for Country Life since 1990, and writes on exhibitions in The Oldie. His Biographical Dictionary of British Watercolour Artists (1976) went through several editions. Other books include Understanding Watercolours (1985), the best-selling Antiques Roadshow A-Z of Antiques Hunting (1996), and 1066 and Rather More (2009), recounting his 12-day walk from York to Battle in the steps of King Harold’s army. His In the Ear of the Beholder will be published by Thomas Del Mar in 2025. Other interests include Shakespeare and cartoons.

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