Elwin Hawthorne (1905–1954) was a British painter, and part of the so-called
East London Group.
He was often described as an English
Utrillo.
Hawthorne was born Elwin Hawthorn in
Poplar, London, in 1905.
one of six sons and a daughter, whose father was a painter and decorator.
He left school aged 14, without obtaining any qualifications.
With no job, he took art courses at Bethnal Green Men's Institute and the Bow & Bromley Evening Institute.
He adopted the spelling "Hawthorne" from 1928, having been catalogued as such at an East London Art Club exhibition held at
Whitechapel Art Gallery
The Whitechapel Gallery is a public art gallery in Whitechapel on the north side of Whitechapel High Street, in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets. The original building, designed by Charles Harrison Townsend, opened in 1901 as one of the fir ...
.
He subsequently worked, for three years, as assistant to
Walter Sickert.
He exhibited regularly at
Lefevre Galleries, who paid him a retainer and had first refusal on his works, and hosted two solo exhibitions.
He painted a number of buildings in London, including
St John-at-Hampstead
St John-at-Hampstead is a Church of England parish church dedicated to St John the Evangelist (though the original dedication was only refined from St John to this in 1917 by the Bishop of London) in Church Row, Hampstead, London.
History
H ...
, and the since-demolished
St Andrew's church in Vanbrugh Park.
Further afield, his subjects include
North Foreland Lighthouse
North Foreland is a chalk headland on the Kent coast of southeast England, specifically in Broadstairs.
With the rest of Broadstairs and part of Ramsgate it is the eastern side of Kent's largest peninsula, the Isle of Thanet. It presents a ...
.
One of his painting was shown in the British pavilion at the 1936
Venice Biennale
The Venice Biennale (; it, La Biennale di Venezia) is an international cultural exhibition hosted annually in Venice, Italy by the Biennale Foundation. The biennale has been organised every year since 1895, which makes it the oldest of ...
.
He served in the army during
World War II
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...
, which conflict saw the end of his exhibiting.
After discharge, he became a wages clerk for
Plessey
The Plessey Company plc was a British electronics, defence and telecommunications company. It originated in 1917, growing and diversifying into electronics. It expanded after World War II by acquisition of companies and formed overseas compani ...
and taught art part-time.
Hawthorne died in the King George Hospital at
Ilford, Essex, on 15 October 1954
and was survived by his wife, Lilian (ne Leahy; they married in 1937 and she died in 1996
), who was also an East London Group artist, and their two children.
By the time of his death, aged 49, he had become so disenchanted with the art world that he had used one of his paintings, on board, as a shelf in a coal bunker. It was later recovered by his wife. HIs estate at probate was worth £1442 8s.
The author David Buckman has described him as:
A number of Hawthorne's works are in public collections in the United Kingdom, including
Manchester Art Gallery
Manchester Art Gallery, formerly Manchester City Art Gallery, is a publicly owned art museum on Mosley Street in Manchester city centre. The main gallery premises were built for a learned society in 1823 and today its collection occupies three c ...
, the
Laing Art Gallery,
Ulster Museum
The Ulster Museum, located in the Botanic Gardens in Belfast, has around 8,000 square metres (90,000 sq. ft.) of public display space, featuring material from the collections of fine art and applied art, archaeology, ethnography, treasure ...
,
St. Anne's College (
University of Oxford
, mottoeng = The Lord is my light
, established =
, endowment = £6.1 billion (including colleges) (2019)
, budget = £2.145 billion (2019–20)
, chancellor ...
),
Russell-Cotes Art Gallery & Museum,
Aberdeen Art Gallery & Museums,
Herbert Art Gallery & Museum
Herbert Art Gallery & Museum (also known as the Herbert) is a museum, art gallery, records archive, learning centre, media studio and creative arts facility on Jordan Well, Coventry, England.
Overview
The museum is named after Sir Alfred Herb ...
,
Camden Local Studies and Archives Centre, and the
Harris Museum & Art Gallery.
Further reading
*
References
External links
East London Group*
Analysis of ''Church near Blackheath''
{{DEFAULTSORT:Hawthorne, Elwin
1905 births
1954 deaths
Artists from London
English painters
British Army personnel of World War II
People from Poplar, London