| Description | Papers of Sir Lawrence Gowing. Includes personal papers, correspondence and ephemera relating to Gowing's applications, UCL, Gowing's knighthood, Julia Strachey and Mary Douglas; correspondence and press cuttings relating to Gowing's publications (and unpublished works); correspondence relating to exhibitions and galleries, with a focus on an exhibition of Cézanne's work; Correspondence and scripts relating to Gowing's films on different artists including Matisse, Vermeer, Masaccio and Cézanne (mostly material relating to Gowing's 'Three Painters' series for BBC2); Gowing's research on Hogarth and Architectural education; correspondence relating to portrait commissions for Gowing; material relating to Gowing's lectures given at the Slade, including transcripts of the lectures he gave, annotated lists of lectures, slide lists and cassette tape recordings of the lectures. |
| AdminHistory | Sir Lawrence Gowing (1918-1991) was a painter and art historian. Born 21 April 1918, Gowing grew up in Stamford Hill, London. His primary education was carried out at The Downs Malvern school in Herefordshire, where former Slade student E. Maurice Feild taught art, encouraging the pupils to paint outside. Gowing then moved to a school in Reading, before being tutored privately whilst living at home in London. Whilst Gowing's parents wanted him to have a career in insurance, Gowing wanted to pursue the arts. He wrote to W. H. Auden, an acquaintance of Feild, about becoming a film director, who in turn introduced him to William Coldstream. Gowing went on to study painting under Coldstream's tutelage. During this time, at the School of Drawing and Painting, Gowing became friends with Adrian Durham Stokes, another student who wrote on art. Gowing moved into Bloomsbury, renting Stokes' old studio on Fitzroy Street. In this area, he met Julia Strachey, who he was to marry in 1952. In 1967 he divorced Strachey to marry Jennifer Akam Wallis, with whom he had three children.
Gowing eventually became a teacher at Camberwell School of Arts and Crafts, before moving to Newcastle where he became a professor of fine art (1948-1958). He held exhibitions of his own work and wrote books on artists, such as one on Vermeer published 1952. This was a turning point in his career as he developed from an artist into an art historian.
Later, he organised exhibitions of other artists, such as Cézanne (Edinburgh and Tate 1954). 1959 saw Gowing become principal of the Chelsea School of Art. Following this, he became keeper of the British collections and deputy director of the Tate Gallery in 1965. In 1966 Gowing held two exhibitions, one of Turner's work and one of Matisse's work, at the Museum of Modern Art in New York.
Developing his connection with Matisse, Gowing held an exhibition of his work at the Hayward Gallery in 1968, and created a film on Matisse for the Arts Council in 1969.
Gowing moved to Leeds to become professor of fine art at Leeds Universitiy in 1967 until 1975.
Other exhibitions organised by Gowing include one on Hogarth at Tate in 1971, one on Cézanne in Newcastle and London in 1973 and another on Cézanne in New York.
Gowing was a member of the Arts Council from 1970-1972, and from 1977-1981. He became professor of fine art at the Slade in 1975, where he remained until 1985. Following this, he moved to the National Gallery, Washington, to become a research fellow and then curator at the Phillips Collection. He was awarded a CBE in 1952, and receieved a knighthood in 1982. He was made a Royal Academician in 1989.
Sir Lawrence Gowing died on 5 February 1991 in London.
Information source: Oxford Dictionary of National Biography |