Frank Graham Bell (21 November 1910 – 9 August 1943) was a painter of portraits, landscapes and still-life, and a founder member of the realist

Euston Road School The Euston Road School is a term applied to a group of English painters, active either as staff or students at the School of Drawing and Painting in London between 1937 and 1939. The School opened in October 1937 at premises in Fitzroy Street bef ...

. He was also a journalist and writer on art and the artist. Born in South Africa, he spent most of his career in Britain (1931–1943), where he died in a flying accident during World War II.

Biography

Frank Graham Bell was born on 21 November 1910 in present-day

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the Southern Africa, southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the Atlantic Ocean, South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the ...

, in

Durban Durban ( ) ( zu, eThekwini, from meaning 'the port' also called zu, eZibubulungwini for the mountain range that terminates in the area), nicknamed ''Durbs'',Ishani ChettyCity nicknames in SA and across the worldArticle on ''news24.com'' from ...

Transvaal Province The Province of the Transvaal ( af, Provinsie van Transvaal), commonly referred to as the Transvaal (; ), was a province of South Africa from 1910 until 1994, when a new constitution subdivided it following the end of apartheid. The name "Trans ...

. He had a younger brother, Geoffrey Graham Bell, who also became an artist. He first worked in a bank and on a farm before turning to art. He studied at the Durban Art School, and held his first one-man exhibition at the City Hall in Durban in 1931. In 1931 he moved to Britain together with Anne Bilbrough, a young actress whom he was later to marry and who was the mother of their only daughter Harriet. At first he was inspired by the work of

Duncan Grant Duncan James Corrowr Grant (21 January 1885 – 8 May 1978) was a British painter and designer of textiles, pottery, theatre sets and costumes. He was a member of the Bloomsbury Group. His father was Bartle Grant, a "poverty-stricken" major i ...

; then met

William Coldstream Sir William Menzies Coldstream, CBE (28 February 1908 – 18 February 1987) was an English realist painter and a long-standing art teacher. Biography Coldstream was born at Belford, Northumberland, in northern England, the second son of co ...

. In 1934 under the influence of Geoffrey Tibble he showed non-representational works at the exhibition of Objective Abstractions at the Zwemmer Gallery. Between 1934 and 1937 Bell abandoned painting and took up journalism. He contributed to the

New Statesman The ''New Statesman'' is a British Political magazine, political and cultural magazine published in London. Founded as a weekly review of politics and literature on 12 April 1913, it was at first connected with Sidney Webb, Sidney and Beatrice ...

and went on to become its arts editor. Bell took up painting again, and in 1937 along with

Lawrence Gowing Sir Lawrence Burnett Gowing (21 April 1918 – 5 February 1991) was an English artist, writer, curator and teacher. Initially recognised as a portrait and landscape painter, he quickly rose to prominence as an art educator, writer, and eventuall ...

, Rodrigo Moynihan,

Victor Pasmore Edwin John Victor Pasmore, CH, CBE (3 December 190823 January 1998) was a British artist. He pioneered the development of abstract art in Britain in the 1940s and 1950s. Early life Pasmore was born in Chelsham, Surrey, on 3 December 1908. He ...

and Claude Rogers, became a founder of the

. This realist group of painters taught or studied at the school of painting and drawing which they set up at 316 Euston Road in

London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...

. They admired a tradition of painting derived from the work of Cézanne, reacting against avant-garde styles and asserting the importance of painting traditional subjects in a realist manner. Their programme was largely based on a political and social intention of creating a widely understandable and socially relevant art. Most members were

socialists Socialism is a left-wing economic philosophy and movement encompassing a range of economic systems characterized by the dominance of social ownership of the means of production as opposed to private ownership. As a term, it describes the eco ...

and some were members of the

Communist Party A communist party is a political party that seeks to realize the socio-economic goals of communism. The term ''communist party'' was popularized by the title of ''The Manifesto of the Communist Party'' (1848) by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels. ...

. Many also were recording their times for posterity as part of the

Mass Observation Mass-Observation is a United Kingdom social research project; originally the name of an organisation which ran from 1937 to the mid-1960s, and was revived in 1981 at the University of Sussex. Mass-Observation originally aimed to record everyday ...

movement, but their work was not propagandist in the manner of

Socialist Realism Socialist realism is a style of idealized realistic art that was developed in the Soviet Union and was the official style in that country between 1932 and 1988, as well as in other socialist countries after World War II. Socialist realism is c ...

. The School was affiliated to the

Artists' International Association The Artists' International Association (AIA) was an organisation founded in London in 1933 out of discussion among Pearl Binder, Clifford Rowe, Misha Black, James Fitton, James Boswell, James Holland, Edward Ardizzone, Peter Laszlo Peri'Artis ...

, and helped artists fleeing from Nazi Germany to resettle and find work. In 1938 Rosenberg & Helft exhibited Bell's work in a mixed show, along with paintings by

, Thomas Carr, Claude Rogers,

and Geoffrey Tibble. In the same year Bell worked for

Bolton Bolton (, locally ) is a large town in Greater Manchester in North West England, formerly a part of Lancashire. A former mill town, Bolton has been a production centre for textiles since Flemish weavers settled in the area in the 14th ...

, with

Humphrey Spender Humphrey Spender (19 April 1910 – 11 March 2005) was a British photographer, painter, and designer. Family and education Humphrey Spender was the third son of Harold Spender, a journalist and writer. Humphrey's mother, Violet Schuster, came ...

the photographer. (Their sketchbooks and photographs are conserved by Bolton Museum.) In 1939 Bell published the pamphlet, ''The Artist And His Public'', and wrote the ''Plan for Artists'' with

Kenneth Clark Kenneth Mackenzie Clark, Baron Clark (13 July 1903 – 21 May 1983) was a British art historian, museum director, and broadcaster. After running two important art galleries in the 1930s and 1940s, he came to wider public notice on television ...

, urging patronage for contemporary artists. As a result, several of his contemporaries were able to become artists, whose careers might have ended because of financial necessity.
In 1942 Ernest Brown & Phillips exhibited Bell's work along with paintings by

Anthony Devas Thomas Anthony Devas (8 January 1911 – 21 December 1958) was a British portrait painter who was associated with members of the Euston Road School. Early life Thomas Anthony Devas, known as Anthony, was born in Bromley in Kent, on 8 January ...

, Thomas Carr and Lawrence Gowing. After the outbreak of

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 opposing ...

in 1939, Bell enlisted with 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 ...

to be trained as a pilot. In about 1940 he painted some watercolors of

Ewenny Priory Ewenny Priory ( cy, Priordy Ewenni), in Ewenny in the Vale of Glamorgan, Wales, was a monastery of the Benedictine order, founded in the 12th century. The priory was unusual in having extensive military-style defences and in its state of preserva ...

and other sites in Glamorgan, as part of the 'Recording Britain' scheme, devised by

and supported by the

Pilgrim Trust The Pilgrim Trust is a national grant-making trust in the United Kingdom. It is based in London and is a registered charity under English law. It was founded in 1930 with a two million pound grant by Edward Harkness, an American philanthropist. T ...

.
When under his basic training in Wales he suffered a bad break of his leg during a Sunday morning football match. This delay in training meant that he became too old to continue as a pilot and so entered a navigators course. After training in South Africa he returned to UK in early 1943 with the rank of pilot officer. In June he arrived at RAF Ossington the base of 82 OTU.
On 9 August 1943 his Wellington bomber plane developed an engine failure near the end of a training flight, the pilot lost control and it crashed near to

Newark-on-Trent Newark-on-Trent or Newark () is a market town and civil parish in the Newark and Sherwood district in Nottinghamshire, England. It is on the River Trent, and was historically a major inland port. The A1 road (Great Britain), A1 road bypasses th ...

Nottinghamshire Nottinghamshire (; abbreviated Notts.) is a landlocked county in the East Midlands region of England, bordering South Yorkshire to the north-west, Lincolnshire to the east, Leicestershire to the south, and Derbyshire to the west. The trad ...

, killing all the crew – thus ending at the age of 32 what was becoming one of the most sensitive and conscientious artistic careers.
Before the war and up to his death, Graham Bell was in a relationship with Anne Popham Anne Olivier Bell. War time letters to his mother and to Anne Popham are held in the Tate Archive and these indicate his intention to divorce his wife and marry Anne Popham.
In the decade after his death, his widow married the art collector Gerald Reitlinger and Anne Popham married the artist Quentin Bell. The similarity of the forenames and surnames of these two women is sometimes the cause for confusion amongst researchers. In 1960, Harriet Graham Bell, Frank's only daughter, married art collector John Cullis. After the war Lund Humphries published ''The Paintings of Graham Bell with an introduction by Sir Kenneth Clark'' (1947), and the Arts Council of Great Britain included some of Bell's work in their exhibition, ''The Euston Road School'' (1948).

Select paintings

* ''Imogen'' – Derby Museums & Art Gallery * ''Baylham Mill'', 1940 – Arts Council collection * ''Brunswick Square, London'', 1940 – Museums Sheffield * ''Old Bridge, Bridgend, Glamorganshire'', ca.1940 – Victoria and Albert Museum, London * ''Llysworney, Glamorganshire'', ca.1940 – Victoria and Albert Museum * ''Llannichangel, Glamorganshire'', ca. 1940 c. Llanmichangel– Victoria and Albert Museum * ''Ewenny Priory, Glamorganshire'', ca. 1940 – Victoria and Albert Museum * ''Dover Front'', 1938 – Tate * ''Miss Anne Popham'', 1937-8 – Tate * ''Miss Pool'' – Glasgow Museums * ''In the fields'', 1936 * ''Head of an Evacuee'' * ''Cows at Rodwell'' * ''The Green Coat'', ca.1930 * ''Portrait of an Elderly Man'' * ''Landscape in Provence''

Writings

*''The Artist And His Public'' (1939) Hogarth Sixpenny Pamphlets; 5

References

Dictionary of National Biography: Bell, (Frank) Graham

External links

Works by Graham Bell in Tate Britain
*
Art UK: Portrait of Graham Bell by Geoffrey Arthur Tibble

on roof of art gallery, 1938] {{DEFAULTSORT:Bell, Graham 1910 births 1943 deaths South African people of British descent White South African people Artists from Durban South African expatriates in the United Kingdom 20th-century British painters British male painters South African painters South African male painters Landscape artists Royal Air Force officers Victims of aviation accidents or incidents in 1943 Aviators killed in aviation accidents or incidents in England Royal Air Force pilots of World War II Royal Air Force personnel killed in World War II 20th-century British male artists

Biography

Select paintings

Writings

References

Further reading

External links