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

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposi ...

. 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 99,251 in the 2011 census.https://www.nomisweb.co.uk/census/2011/ks101ew Census 2011 table KS101EW Usual resident population, ...

West Riding of Yorkshire The West Riding of Yorkshire is one of three historic subdivisions of Yorkshire, England. From 1889 to 1974 the administrative county County of York, West Riding (the area under the control of West Riding County Council), abbreviated County ...

and studied at Leeds School of Art 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 Regiment of Artillery serving alongside the other two arms of the Regiment, the Royal Field Artillery (RFA) and the Royal Horse Artillery (RHA) ...

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 research university in London, United Kingdom, with campuses in South Kensington, Battersea and White City. It is the only entirely postgraduate art and design university in the United Kingdom. It o ...

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

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, 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 artist ...

(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 Air Raid Precautions (ARP) refers to a number of organisations and guidelines in the United Kingdom dedicated to the protection of civilians from the danger of air raids. Government consideration for air raid precautions increased in the 1920s an ...

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 A ...

and dispatched to the Far East to record the Allied campaigns in Burma and Ceylon. He was at Rangoon 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 British war artists English male painters English watercolourists World War II artists Royal Academicians 20th-century English male artists Royal Garrison Artillery soldiers Military personnel from Yorkshire