Hubert Andrew Freeth (29 December 1912 – 26 March 1986) was a British portrait painter and

etcher Etching is traditionally the process of using strong acid or mordant to cut into the unprotected parts of a metal surface to create a design in intaglio (incised) in the metal. In modern manufacturing, other chemicals may be used on other types ...

Biography

Freeth was born in

Birmingham Birmingham ( ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, city and metropolitan borough in the metropolitan county of West Midlands (county), West Midlands in England. It is the second-largest city in the United Kingdom with a population of 1. ...

and attended the

Birmingham College of Art The Birmingham School of Art was a municipal art school based in the centre of Birmingham, England. Although the organisation was absorbed by Birmingham Polytechnic in 1971 and is now part of Birmingham City University's Faculty of Arts, Design a ...

and, between 1936 and 1939, studied at the British School in Rome. From 1936 onwards, Freeth exhibited regularly at the Royal Academy, the

Royal Watercolour Society The Royal Watercolour Society is a British institution of painters working in watercolours. The Society is a centre of excellence for water-based media on paper, which allows for a diverse and interesting range of approaches to the medium of wa ...

and elsewhere. During World War Two, Freeth served in the Middle East as an official war artist to the

Royal Air Force The Royal Air Force (RAF) is the United Kingdom's air and space force. It was formed towards the end of the First World War on 1 April 1918, becoming the first independent air force in the world, by regrouping the Royal Flying Corps (RFC) an ...

. The

War Artists' Advisory Committee The War Artists Advisory Committee (WAAC), was a British government agency established within the Ministry of Information at the outbreak of the Second World War in 1939 and headed by Sir Kenneth Clark. Its aim was to compile a comprehensive artist ...

commissioned two lithographs from Freeth. During the War, he also worked on the Recording Britain project. Freeth was one of the first artists to make the people of the Black Country the main subject of his work, as other artists placed greater emphasis on representing the industrial landscape. Freeth won the prestigious Prix de Rome in engraving in 1936 and 1937, for his series of Black Country images. After the war, the

National Coal Board The National Coal Board (NCB) was the statutory corporation created to run the nationalised coal mining industry in the United Kingdom. Set up under the Coal Industry Nationalisation Act 1946, it took over the United Kingdom's collieries on "ve ...

commissioned Freeth to produce works about mine-workers due to the success of his representation of the people of the Black Country. Freeth was elected to the Royal Academy in 1965 and taught at St Martin's School of Art and the

Central School of Art The Central School of Art and Design was a public school of fine and applied arts in London, England. It offered foundation and degree level courses. It was established in 1896 by the London County Council as the Central School of Arts and Cr ...

in London. Freeth's work is held in a number of public collections, including Birmingham Museums Trust,

National Football Museum The National Football Museum is England's national museum of football. It is based in the Urbis building in Manchester city centre, and preserves, conserves and displays important collections of football memorabilia. The museum was originally b ...

, Royal Academy of Arts and a number of university collections. Freeth was a friend of fellow artist Raymond Teague Cowern who was also born in Birmingham.

Family

Andrew married Roseen (née Preston). They had three sons, Martin Freeth, Tony Freeth, and Richard Freeth. Andrew's nephew is Peter Freeth, also a Royal Academician.

References

* 'FREETH, H. Andrew', Who Was Who, A & C Black, 1920–2008; online edn, Oxford University Press, Dec 2007
accessed 20 Jan 2012

External links

* 1912 births 1986 deaths 20th-century English male artists 20th-century English painters 20th-century British printmakers Painters from Birmingham, West Midlands British etchers British war artists English male painters Royal Academicians World War II artists {{UK-painter-20thC-stub