Darsie Napier Japp MC (17 February 1883 – 1973) was an English painter and soldier. Regimental Band (Art

Japp was born in Liverpool and attended St John's College of the

University of Oxford , mottoeng = The Lord is my light , established = , endowment = £6.1 billion (including colleges) (2019) , budget = £2.145 billion (2019–20) , chancellor ...

. After he graduated, he worked in the offices of his father's shipping company in the

City of London The City of London is a city, ceremonial county and local government district that contains the historic centre and constitutes, alongside Canary Wharf, the primary central business district (CBD) of London. It constituted most of London f ...

between 1904 and 1907. While working in the City, Japp studied at the

night school A night school is an adult learning school that holds classes in the evening or at night to accommodate people who work during the day. A community college or university may hold night school classes that admit undergraduates. Italy The Scuola ...

of the

Lambeth School of Art Founded in 1854 as the Lambeth School of Art, the City and Guilds of London Art School is a small specialist art college located in central London, England. Originally founded as a government art school, it is now an independent, not-for-profit ...

under Philip Connard. Japp studied at the

Slade School of Art The UCL Slade School of Fine Art (informally The Slade) is the art school of University College London (UCL) and is based in London, England. It has been ranked as the UK's top art and design educational institution. The school is organised as ...

between 1908 and 1909, where he became friends with his fellow student Stanley Spencer and would often visit him in his home at

Cookham Cookham is a historic River Thames, Thames-side village and civil parishes in England, civil parish on the north-eastern edge of Berkshire, England, north-north-east of Maidenhead and opposite the village of Bourne End, Buckinghamshire, Bourne ...

in Berkshire. Japp specialised in landscape and figure paintings, and exhibited with the

New English Art Club The New English Art Club (NEAC) was founded in London in 1885 as an alternative venue to the Royal Academy. It continues to hold an annual exhibition of paintings and drawings at the Mall Galleries in London, exhibiting works by both members and a ...

of which he became a member in 1919. At the start of the

First World War World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

Japp joined the

British Army The British Army is the principal land warfare force of the United Kingdom, a part of the British Armed Forces along with the Royal Navy and the Royal Air Force. , the British Army comprises 79,380 regular full-time personnel, 4,090 Gurk ...

, and eventually became a Major in the Royal Field Artillery commanding an artillery battery in Macedonia, for which he was awarded the

Military Cross The Military Cross (MC) is the third-level (second-level pre-1993) military decoration awarded to officers and (since 1993) other ranks of the British Armed Forces, and formerly awarded to officers of other Commonwealth countries. The MC ...

. Coincidentally, Spencer also served in Macedonia in the last years of the war and the British War Memorial Committee was keen for both men to be released from their military duties to work on paintings for the proposed, but never built, national Hall of Remembrance. The Army refused to release either of them until after the Armistice, when Japp, following a visit to the Western Front, began work on the painting ''The Royal Field Artillery in Macedonia, Spring 1918'' (1919), which is now part of the collection of the Imperial War Museum. Shortly after the war, Japp gave up painting professionally to farm and to breed race horses in Berkshire.

Henry Lamb Henry Taylor Lamb (21 June 1883 – 8 October 1960) was an Australian-born British painter. A follower of Augustus John, Lamb was a founder member of the Camden Town Group in 1911 and of the London Group in 1913. Early life Henry Lamb was bo ...

painted a group portrait of Japp and his family in 1928, which is now in

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 ...

. Japp left England in 1926, and for the next 27 years lived in France and Spain, before returning to England in 1953. He left England again to live in Portugal some years later.

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* {{DEFAULTSORT:Japp, Darsie 1883 births 1973 deaths 20th-century English painters English male painters Alumni of St John's College, Oxford Alumni of the Lambeth School of Art Alumni of the Slade School of Fine Art British Army personnel of World War I English expatriates in France English expatriates in Spain English farmers Modern artists Military personnel from Liverpool Recipients of the Military Cross Royal Artillery officers Artists from Liverpool 20th-century English male artists