Sir William Coldstream - Biography, Method and works

Painter, and teacher of art, born in Belford, Northumberland, NE England, UK. He studied at the Slade School of Art, London, (1926–9), joined the London Group in 1933, and helped to found the Euston Road School (1937). From 1949 he was professor of fine art at University College London. A highly skilled administrator, he helped reshape British art education, especially through his work on the national advisory committee (1958–71) which produced the two Coldstream Reports.

Sir William Coldstream (February 28, 1908 – February 18, 1987) was an English realist painter and teacher.

Biography

Born in Northumberland, he grew up in London and studied at the Slade School of Art, where he met and married Nancy Sharp. At the start of the Second World War he enlisted in the Royal Artillery, and in 1943 he was appointed as a war artist, working in Egypt and Italy. In 1949 he returned to lead the Slade School as Professor of Fine Art, where he trained Les Filby, and he was awarded the CBE in 1952. He was Chairman of the National Advisory Council on Art Education between 1958 and 1971, and Chairman of the British Film Institute from 1964 until 1971 (he had worked with John Grierson in the GPO Film Unit for a few years in the 1930s).

Method and works

Coldstream was committed to painting directly from life. With one eye closed, the artist can, by sliding a thumb up or down the brush handle, take the measure of an object or interval. Informed by such measurements, the artist can paint what the eye sees without the use of conventional perspective.

As a result of his painstaking methods, Coldstream worked slowly, often taking scores of sittings over several months to complete a work.