Roland Vivian Pitchforth RA ARWS (25 April 1895 – 6 August 1982) was an English painter, teacher and an official British

war artist A war artist is an artist either commissioned by a government or publication, or self-motivated, to document first-hand experience of war in any form of illustrative or depictive record.Imperial War Museum (IWM)header phrase, "war shapes lives" ...

during the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

. He excelled at watercolours and in later years concentrated on landscapes, seascapes and paintings of atmospheric effects.

Early life

Pitchforth was born in

Wakefield Wakefield is a cathedral city in West Yorkshire, England located on the River Calder. The city had a population of 109,766 in the 2021 census, up from 99,251 in the 2011 census. The city is the administrative centre of the wider Metropolit ...

, West Riding of Yorkshire and studied at

Leeds School of Art Leeds Arts University is a specialist arts further and higher education institution, based in the city of Leeds, West Yorkshire, England, with a main campus opposite the University of Leeds. History It was founded in 1846 as the Leeds Sch ...

in 1914 and 1915 before joining the armed forces. He served in the Wakefield Battery of the

Royal Garrison Artillery The Royal Garrison Artillery (RGA) was formed in 1899 as a distinct arm of the British Army's Royal Artillery, Royal Regiment of Artillery serving alongside the other two arms of the Regiment, the Royal Field Artillery (RFA) and the Royal Horse ...

during World War One, service which left him with lifelong hearing damage. After the war, Pitchforth returned to his studies in Leeds where he won a scholarship that allowed him to study at the

Royal College of Art The Royal College of Art (RCA) is a public university, public research university in London, United Kingdom, with campuses in South Kensington, Battersea and White City, London, White City. It is the only entirely postgraduate art and design uni ...

from 1920 to 1925. After graduation he took a teaching job at

Camberwell School of Art Camberwell College of Arts is a constituent college of the University of the Arts London, a public art and design university in London, England. The college offers further and higher education programmes, including postgraduate and PhD awards. ...

and, from 1926 to 1929, a similar post at Clapham School of Art. Pitchforth exhibited works at a number of London galleries and joined the

London Group The London Group is a society based in London, England, created to offer additional exhibiting opportunities to artists besides the Royal Academy of Arts. Formed in 1913, it is one of the oldest artist-led organisations in the world. It was form ...

in 1929. He taught at St Martins School of Art from 1930 to 1937 and then at the Royal College of Art until the outbreak of the Second World War. In 1932, he married Edith Brenda Matthews at Chelsea Register Office.Yorkshire Post and Leeds Intelligencer, 5 September 1932.

Second World War

Pitchforth began the war painting scenes of bomb damage around London on short-term contracts for the

War Artists' Advisory Committee The War Artists' Advisory Committee (WAAC), was a British government agency established within the Ministry of Information at the outbreak of the Second World War in 1939 and headed by Sir Kenneth Clark. Its aim was to compile a comprehensive artis ...

(WAAC). These works quickly led to Pitchforth being given a salaried position with WAAC in 1940, in which he painted further scenes of bombed buildings, war-time factory production, air raid precaution training exercises, parachutes being packed and RAF operations rooms. In the spring of 1943, WAAC assigned Pitchforth to the Admiralty and although he still painted other subjects his focus shifted to naval vessels and maritime warfare. He travelled extensively to complete this commission, working in London, Birmingham, Bristol, Manchester, the south coast of England, Scotland, Northern Ireland, as well as sailing on convoys to Gibraltar and the Azores. In early 1944, he was painting on board ships in the

Western Approaches The Western Approaches is an approximately rectangular area of the Atlantic Ocean lying immediately to the west of Ireland and parts of Great Britain. Its north and south boundaries are defined by the corresponding extremities of Britain. The c ...

. In 1945 he was assigned to the

South East Asia Command South East Asia Command (SEAC) was the body set up to be in overall charge of Allied operations in the South-East Asian Theatre during the Second World War. History Organisation The initial supreme commander of the theatre was General Sir ...

and dispatched to the Far East to record the Allied campaigns in Burma and

Ceylon Sri Lanka, officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka, also known historically as Ceylon, is an island country in South Asia. It lies in the Indian Ocean, southwest of the Bay of Bengal, separated from the Indian subcontinent, ...

. He was at

Rangoon Yangon, formerly romanized as Rangoon, is the capital of the Yangon Region and the largest city of Myanmar. Yangon was the List of capitals of Myanmar, capital of Myanmar until 2005 and served as such until 2006, when the State Peace and Dev ...

when the British took the city and helped camouflage the amphibious assault craft used by the British. At the end of the war Pitchforth developed a lung infection and spent some considerable time convalescing in South Africa before returning to Britain in 1948.

Later life

After he returned to Britain Pitchforth resumed a teaching career, holding posts at Chelsea Polytechnic, Camberwell and St. Martins until he retired from the Sir John Cass College of Art in 1974. Throughout this period he continued to exhibit both in Britain and in several countries around the world.

References

External links

*
Pitchforth's work in the collection of the Imperial War Museum
{{DEFAULTSORT:Pitchforth, Vivian 1895 births 1982 deaths 20th-century English painters Alumni of Leeds Arts University Alumni of the Royal College of Art Artists from Wakefield British Army personnel of World War I English war artists English male painters English watercolourists World War II artists 20th-century British war artists Royal Academicians 20th-century English male artists Royal Garrison Artillery soldiers Military personnel from Wakefield