The Grosvenor School of Modern Art was a private British

art school An art school is an educational institution with a primary focus on the visual arts, including fine art – especially illustration, painting, photography, sculpture, and graphic design. Art schools can offer elementary, secondary, post-seco ...

and, in its shortened form ("Grosvenor School"), the name of a brief British-Australian art movement. It was founded in 1925 by the Scottish

wood engraver Wood engraving is a printmaking technique, in which an artist works an image or ''matrix'' of images into a block of wood. Functionally a variety of woodcut, it uses relief printing, where the artist applies ink to the face of the block and pr ...

Iain Macnab Iain Macnab of Barachastlain (21 October 1890 – 24 December 1967) was a Scottish wood-engraver and painter. As a prominent teacher he was influential in the development of the British school of wood-engraving. His pictures are noted for cl ...

in his house at 33 Warwick Square in

Pimlico Pimlico () is an area of Central London in the City of Westminster, built as a southern extension to neighbouring Belgravia. It is known for its garden squares and distinctive Regency architecture. Pimlico is demarcated to the north by London V ...

, London. From 1925 to 1930

Claude Flight Walter Claude Flight (born London 16 February 1881 - died Donhead St Andrew 10 October 1955) also known as Claude Flight or W. Claude Flight was a British artist who pioneered and popularised the linoleum cut technique. He also painted, illustrated ...

ran it with him, and also taught

linocut Linocut, also known as lino print, lino printing or linoleum art, is a printmaking technique, a variant of woodcut in which a sheet of linoleum (sometimes mounted on a wooden block) is used for a relief surface. A design is cut into the linoleum s ...

ting there; among his students were Sybil Andrews,

Cyril Power Cyril Edward Power (17 December 1872 – 25 May 1951) was an English artist best known for his linocut prints, long-standing artistic partnership with artist Sybil Andrews and for co-founding the Grosvenor School of Modern Art in London in 1925. ...

, Lill Tschudi and William Greengrass.

The school

The school had no formal

curriculum In education, a curriculum (; : curricula or curriculums) is broadly defined as the totality of student experiences that occur in the educational process. The term often refers specifically to a planned sequence of instruction, or to a view ...

and students studied what and when they wished. There were day and evening courses:

life class A figure drawing is a drawing of the human form in any of its various shapes and postures using any of the drawing media. The term can also refer to the act of producing such a drawing. The degree of representation may range from highly detailed, ...

es, classes in composition and design, and classes on the history of Modern Art.

Frank Rutter Francis Vane Phipson Rutter (17 February 1876 – 18 April 1937)"Rutter, Frank V. P.", ''Who Was Who'', A & C Black, 1920–2007; online edn, Oxford University Press, Dec 2007. Retrieved froukwhoswho8 August 2008. was a British art critic, curat ...

taught a course entitled "From Cézanne to Picasso". Macnab's wife, the dancer Helen Wingrave, gave a dance course. Though there was no formal curriculum, all students attended Claude Flight's

classes. The Grosvenor School closed in 1940, merging with the

Heatherley School of Fine Art The Heatherley School of Fine Art is an independent art school in London. The school was named after Thomas Heatherley who took over as the school's principal from James Mathews Leigh (when it was named "Leigh's"). Founded in 1845, the school ...

Legacy

The school did much to revive interest in

printmaking Printmaking is the process of creating artworks by printing, normally on paper, but also on fabric, wood, metal, and other surfaces. "Traditional printmaking" normally covers only the process of creating prints using a hand processed techniq ...

in general, and particularly in the linocut, in the years between the Wars. Artists associated with it have come to be known as the "Grosvenor School", and their work commands high prices. In June–September 2019, the

Dulwich Picture Gallery Dulwich Picture Gallery is an art gallery in Dulwich, South London, which opened to the public in 1817. It was designed by Regency architect Sir John Soane using an innovative and influential method of illumination. Dulwich is the oldest publi ...

in London hosted the first major exhibition presenting solely the output of the Grosvenor School alumni in a public museum; it was also the first major exhibition outside Australia to have considerable examples of the works by the Australian alumni

Ethel Spowers Ethel Louise Spowers (11 July 1890 – 5 May 1947) was an Australian artist associated with the Grosvenor School of Modern Art in London. She was especially known for her linocuts, which are included in the collections of major Australian and ...

Dorrit Black Dorothea Foster Black (23 December 1891 – 13 September 1951) was an Australian painter and printmaker of the modernism, Modernist school, known for being a pioneer of Modernism in Australia. In 1951, at the age of sixty, Black was killed in a ...

and others.

Alumni

Among those who studied at the school were: * Sybil Andrews (1898-1992) * Margaret Barnard *

* Tom Chadwick (1912–1942) *

Suzanne Cooper Suzanne Cooper (1916-1992) was a British Modernist painter and wood-engraver. Her 1936 oil painting "Royal Albion," at the Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tāmaki, Auckland Art Gallery (NZ), is noted for the "artist's use of simplified blocks of for ...

(1916–1992) *

Pamela Drew Pamela Drew (11 September 1910 – 11 June 1989) was a British artist known for her paintings of marine and aviation subjects. Although Drew was born in the north of England she spent considerable periods of her career in Ireland. Biography Dre ...

(1910–1989) *

Anna Findlay Anna R. Findlay (1885-1968) was a British artist and printmaker. She was known for her elegant colour linocut and woodcut prints of mostly topographical scenes. Biography Findlay lived in Glasgow and studied at the Glasgow School of Art from 19 ...

(1885–1968) * Ronald Grierson (1901–1993) *

Mary Elizabeth Groom Mary Elizabeth Groom (17 December 1903 – 21 December 1958) was a British artist, notable for her work as a printmaker and for the books she illustrated in the 1930s for the Golden Cockerel Press. Biography Groom was born at Corringham in Es ...

(1903–1958) * Guy Malet (1900–1973) *

Alison McKenzie Alison McKenzie (30 August 1907 – 1982) was a British artist who was both a painter and printmaker. Biography McKenzie was born in Bombay to Scottish parents and was educated in England at the Prior's Field School from 1921 to 1925. She studi ...

(1907–1982) * Gwenda Morgan (1908–1991), wood engraver. *

* Rachel Reckitt (1908–1995), wood engraver and sculptor *

Adolfine Mary Ryland Adolfine Mary Ryland (14 March 1903 – 1983) was a British artist who worked as a sculptor, painter and printmaker. Across several different media her work often displayed innovative elements of design and also showed her interest in Indian and ...

(1903–1983) *

(1890–1947) *

Eveline Syme Eveline Syme (26 October 1888 – 6 June 1961) was an Australian artist associated with the Grosvenor School of Modern Art, and an advocate for women's post-secondary education. Early life Eveline Winifred Syme was born in Thames Ditton, Surrey, ...

(1888–1961) *

Barbara Austin Taylor Barbara Penson Austin Taylor (1891–1951) was a British sculptor. Biography Taylor was born in West Derby, a suburb of Liverpool, and studied in London at the Westminster School of Art, at the Grosvenor School of Modern Art and then at the Bri ...

(1891–1951), sculptor * Lill Tschudi (1911–2004) * William Greengrass (1898–1972), wood engraver, sculptor, one time curator at the V&A Spowers, Black and Syme became instrumental in organising exhibitions and promoting the school in Australia.

References

{{Authority control Educational institutions established in 1925 Art schools in London 1925 establishments in England