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 before moving to 314/316

Euston Road Euston Road is a road in Central London that runs from Marylebone Road to King's Cross. The route is part of the London Inner Ring Road and forms part of the London congestion charge zone boundary. It is named after Euston Hall, the family s ...

in February 1938. The School was founded by

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 ...

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. Graham Bell was a substantial theoretical influence on these teachers and

Rodrigo Moynihan (Herbert George) Rodrigo MoynihanBurke's Landed Gentry 1970, pg 876 (17 October 1910 – 6 November 1990) was an English painter, credited with being a pioneer of abstract painting in England. Early life Moynihan was born in Santa Cruz de Ten ...

was also closely associated with the School. Students at the school included

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 ...

, Tom Carr, Peter Lanyon,

Vivien John Vivien John (8 March 1915 – 20 May 1994) was a British artist known for her paintings. Biography Vivien John was born at Alderney Manor in Dorset, the daughter of Dorelia McNeill and the artist Augustus John; she would be the last of their f ...

and Thelma Hulbert. The writer Adrian Stokes and the poet

Stephen Spender Sir Stephen Harold Spender (28 February 1909 – 16 July 1995) was an English poet, novelist and essayist whose work concentrated on themes of social injustice and the class struggle. He was appointed Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry by th ...

attended drawing classes. Vanessa Bell and

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 ...

were among visiting teachers to the School. The emphasis was on acute representational painting based on observation. The School emphasised naturalism and

realism Realism, Realistic, or Realists may refer to: In the arts *Realism (arts), the general attempt to depict subjects truthfully in different forms of the arts Arts movements related to realism include: * Classical Realism *Literary realism, a mov ...

, in contrast to the various schools of ''

avant-garde The avant-garde (; In 'advance guard' or ' vanguard', literally 'fore-guard') is a person or work that is experimental, radical, or unorthodox with respect to art, culture, or society.John Picchione, The New Avant-garde in Italy: Theoretica ...

'' art then prevalent. Many of the members were on the political left, and naturalism was seen as an attempt to make art more relevant and understandable to non-specialists and members of the public. To this end, Bell and Coldstream spent three weeks in working-class lodgings in

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 ...

, Lancashire in April 1938 painting cityscapes showing local factories. The resulting paintings were not highly regarded locally in Bolton. Later in 1938, the Euston Road artists contributed to the ''Fifteen paintings of London'' exhibition held at the

Storran Gallery The Storran Gallery was a fashionable ''avant-garde'' art gallery in London in the 1930s. In 1937 it was run by the prominent art critic Eardley Knollys (a friend of Picasso) with Ala Story and the artist Frank Coombs (artist), Frank Coombs (1906 ...

. In an attempt to engage the wider public, private invitations were sent to everyone named Brown, in the Post Office telephone directory. The School closed at the start of the Second World War, as its members joined the Armed Forces, worked as war artists or, in the case of Pasmore, were imprisoned for being a conscientious objector. A small exhibition, ''Members of the Euston Road group'' was held at the

Ashmolean Museum The Ashmolean Museum of Art and Archaeology () on Beaumont Street, Oxford, England, is Britain's first public museum. Its first building was erected in 1678–1683 to house the cabinet of curiosities that Elias Ashmole gave to the University o ...

in 1942. In 1945 Pasmore, Coldstream, Rogers and Gowing were all teaching at the

Camberwell School of Art Camberwell College of Arts is a public tertiary art school in Camberwell, in London, England. It is one of the six constituent colleges of the University of the Arts London. It offers further and higher education programmes, including postgrad ...

and two further exhibitions followed, ''The Euston Road School and others'' at the Wakefield Art Gallery in 1948 and a group retrospective organised by the Arts Council which toured Britain throughout 1948 and 1949. By the end of 1949 the artists had embarked on separate projects, with Coldstream leaving Camberwell for 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 ...

References

Art schools in London History of the London Borough of Camden 1937 establishments in England {{art-org-stub

See also

References