Elm Tree No.2

Location

Country: Nigeria
City: Lagos
Place: British Embassy

Born in London, Robert Medley studied at the Byam Shaw School of Art, the Royal Academy and the Slade School of Art in the 1920s. As a student he met Rex Whistler, Stanley Spencer and several Bloomsbury artists. During 1935-1939 he designed sets and costumes for Group Theatre productions of works by his good friend, W. H. Auden and by T. S. Eliot. Medley served in the Middle East during the Second World War and became an Official War Artist. He enjoyed a long career in fine art education, teaching at many London art schools. In 1982 he was awarded a CBE and elected a Royal Academician in 1986. Retrospectives of his work included shows at the Whitechapel Gallery (1963) and at the Museum of Modern Art, Oxford (1984).

Places

Subjects

abstract, semi-figurative, landscape C20th, tree, elm

Materials & Techniques

canvas, oil, oil painting

Artist

Robert Medley (1905 - 1994)

Title

Elm Tree No.2

Date

1962

Medium

Oil on canvas

Dimensions

height: 114.50 cm, width: 99.00 cm

Acquisition

Purchased from Leicester Galleries, June 1964

Inscription

br: Robert Medley '62

Provenance

Consigned by the artist to Leicester Galleries, London; from whom purchased by the Ministry of Works in July 1964, as ‘The Tree’

GAC number

6507