William Bowyer RA (25 May 1926 – 1 March 2015) was a British portrait and landscape painter, who worked in a traditional manner.

Life and work

William Bowyer was born in Leek, Staffordshire. He studied at

Burslem School of Art Burslem School of Art was an art school in the centre of the town of Burslem in the Potteries district of England. Students from the school played an important role in the local pottery industry. Pottery was made on the site of the school from th ...

and 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 ...

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 ...

, where his tutors included Ruskin Spear and

Carel Weight Carel Victor Morlais Weight, (10 September 1908 – 13 August 1997) was an English painter. Biography Weight was born in Paddington in 1908. His father was a bank cashier and his mother, who was of Swedish and German descent, was a chirop ...

."William Bowyer RA"
Royal Academy. Retrieved 22 January 2007 In 1963, he won the City of London Art Award. From 1971 until 1982, he was Head of Fine Art at Maidstone College of Art. In 1988, the National Portrait Gallery acquired his portraits of miners' leader

Arthur Scargill Arthur Scargill (born 11 January 1938) is a British trade unionist who was President of the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) from 1982 to 2002. He is best known for leading the UK miners' strike (1984–85), a major event in the history of ...

and cricketer

Viv Richards Sir Isaac Vivian Alexander Richards (born 7 March 1952) is an Antiguan retired cricketer who represented the West Indies cricket team between 1974 and 1991. Batting generally at number three in a dominant West Indies side, Richards is widely ...

. The same year the

Marylebone Cricket Club Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC) is a cricket club founded in 1787 and based since 1814 at Lord's Cricket Ground, which it owns, in St John's Wood, London. The club was formerly the governing body of cricket retaining considerable global influence ...

commissioned him to paint the bicentenary game at Lord's Cricket Ground.Buckman, David. ''Dictionary of Artists in Britain since 1945'', p.174. Art Dictionaries, Bristol, 2006 Although a regular exhibitor in club and group shows, and the Royal Academy Summer Exhibition, his first London solo show was not until 1983, when a retrospective was held at Messum's gallery. His work is "modern traditional"

figurative painting Figurative art, sometimes written as figurativism, describes artwork (particularly paintings and sculptures) that is clearly derived from real object sources and so is, by definition, representational. The term is often in contrast to abstract ...

. Strong influences come from predecessors such as John Constable and J. M. W. Turner. Landscapes concentrate on the

River Thames The River Thames ( ), known alternatively in parts as the River Isis, is a river that flows through southern England including London. At , it is the longest river entirely in England and the second-longest in the United Kingdom, after the R ...

and the Suffolk coast. His love of cricket also leads to subject matter."William Bowyer"
New English Art Club. Retrieved 22 January 2007 Artist

Ken Howard Kenneth Joseph Howard Jr. (March 28, 1944 – March 23, 2016) was an American actor. He was known for his roles as Thomas Jefferson in '' 1776'' and as basketball coach and former Chicago Bulls player Ken Reeves in the television show '' The Wh ...

said of Bowyer's work: He was elected an Associate of the Royal Academy of Arts (ARA) in 1973 and a Royal Academician (RA) in 1981. His memberships include the Royal Institute of Painters in Water Colours and the

Royal Society of Portrait Painters The Royal Society of Portrait Painters is a charity based at Carlton House Terrace, SW1, London that promotes the practice and appreciation of portraiture. Its Annual Exhibition of portraiture is held at Mall Galleries, and it runs a commissi ...

. He was Honoured Secretary (President) of 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 ...

for 30 years. His work is in collections including the Royal Academy of Arts, the Arts Council of Great Britain,

Vancouver Art Gallery The Vancouver Art Gallery (VAG) is an art museum in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. The museum occupies a adjacent to Robson Square in downtown Vancouver, making it the largest art museum in Western Canada by building size. Designed by Franc ...

in Canada, at Huffman and Boyle in

New Jersey New Jersey is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern regions of the United States. It is bordered on the north and east by the state of New York; on the east, southeast, and south by the Atlantic Ocean; on the west by the Delaware ...

, at the Museum at Lord's Cricket Ground, and in

Charles, Prince of Wales Charles III (Charles Philip Arthur George; born 14 November 1948) is King of the United Kingdom and the 14 other Commonwealth realms. He was the longest-serving heir apparent and Prince of Wales and, at age 73, became the oldest person to a ...

' private collection. He was the father of artists, Jason Bowyer and Francis Bowyer. He lived in London and Walberswick, Suffolk. Bowyer died in March 2015.

Notes and references

External links

Official web siteWilliam Bowyer at the NEAC, includes images of paintingsWilliam Bowyer's work at the National Portrait Gallery
{{DEFAULTSORT:Bowyer, William 1926 births 2015 deaths English artists English painters British contemporary painters Royal Academicians Alumni of the Royal College of Art

Life and work

See also

Notes and references

External links