Peter Frederick Briscoe Snow (1927–2008) was an
English
English usually refers to:
* English language
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Peoples, culture, and language
* ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England
** English national ide ...
painter, theatre designer and teacher. From the 1960s to the 1990s he was head of postgraduate theatre design at the
Slade School of Fine 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 ...
, with the help of
Nicholas Georgiadis and later,
Yolanda Sonnabend.
Life and work
Peter Snow, son of
Sir Frederick Snow, was educated at
Bloxham School
Bloxham School, also called All Saints' School, is an independent co-educational day and boarding school of the British public school tradition, located in the village of Bloxham, three miles (5 km) from the town of Banbury in Oxfordshir ...
in
Oxfordshire, where he showed an early talent for painting and was involved in designing sets for school plays. In 1946, he studied briefly at
Goldsmiths College
Goldsmiths, University of London, officially the Goldsmiths' College, is a constituent research university of the University of London in England. It was originally founded in 1891 as The Goldsmiths' Technical and Recreative Institute by the Wo ...
and worked as a journalist on the South London Press before doing his national service with the
Royal Engineers in the
Middle East
The Middle East ( ar, الشرق الأوسط, ISO 233: ) is a geopolitical region commonly encompassing Arabia (including the Arabian Peninsula and Bahrain), Asia Minor (Asian part of Turkey except Hatay Province), East Thrace (Europ ...
. Following his time in the army he gained a scholarship to the Slade, studying until 1953 and joining the staff in 1957. He was head of theatre design, succeeding
Robert Medley.
Snow started working in theatre in 1951, when he designed
Love's Labour's Lost for the Southwark Shakespeare Festival. In 1954, Snow worked alongside
Joan Littlewood
Joan Maud Littlewood (6 October 1914 – 20 September 2002) was an English theatre director who trained at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, and is best known for her work in developing the Theatre Workshop. She has been called "The Mother of M ...
at her Theatre Workshop in
Stratford East. Two of his most admired designs for Littlewood were for a revival of John Marston's
The Dutch Courtesan
''The Dutch Courtesan'' is an early Jacobean stage play written by the dramatist and satirist John Marston circa 1604. It was performed by the Children of the Queen's Revels, one of the troupes of boy actors active at the time, in the Blac ...
. Other early theatre work included designs for
Lennox Berkeley
Sir Lennox Randal Francis Berkeley (12 May 190326 December 1989) was an English composer.
Biography
Berkeley was born on 12 May 1903 in Oxford, England, the younger child and only son of Aline Carla (1863–1935), daughter of Sir James Char ...
's one-act opera A Dinner Engagement at the
Aldeburgh Festival
The Aldeburgh Festival of Music and the Arts is an English arts festival devoted mainly to classical music. It takes place each June in the Aldeburgh area of Suffolk, centred on Snape Maltings Concert Hall.
History of the Aldeburgh Festival
Th ...
in 1954,
Frederick Ashton's ballet Variations on a Theme by Purcell at the
Royal Opera House
The Royal Opera House (ROH) is an opera house and major performing arts venue in Covent Garden, central London. The large building is often referred to as simply Covent Garden, after a previous use of the site. It is the home of The Royal Ope ...
in 1955, and
Noël Coward's South Sea Bubble, at the Lyric Theatre in 1956. In 1955, Snow designed the British premiere of
Samuel Beckett's ''
Waiting for Godot'', directed by
Peter Hall at the Arts Theatre, where he also designed the costumes.
Snow’s first solo exhibition as a painter was at the Prospect Gallery in London in 1951, followed by a show at the Beaux Arts in 1957. Following a trip to
New York City
New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the Un ...
in 1970, Snow held some of his most vivid painting and two multi-media entertainments, Reflections. These were held at Oval House in south
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 ...
in 1971 and at the Institute of Contemporary Arts in 1975.
Snow designed a
BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC
Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board exam. ...
...
in 1978 and continued to exhibit regularly at the Beaux Arts and, after it closed down, the Piccadilly and Albemarle galleries. His occasional portraits included studies of Joan Littlewood and
In 1963 Snow married Maria Wirth, an Australian colour consultant and interior designer; she died in December 2007. Towards the end of his life he suffered from Alzheimer's disease. He died 29 August 2008