London River

Location

Country: UK
City: London
Place: Government Art Collection

David Bomberg, today acknowledged as an influential modern British artist, was much-neglected in his lifetime. He grew up in a Jewish neighbourhood in east London and attended Walter Sickert's classes at Westminster School (1908 -1910). In 1915 Bomberg enlisted in the Royal Engineers. The failure of his solo exhibition in 1919 led to his retirement from British artistic life. He lived in Palestine from 1923 to 1927. During the Second World War he was an Official War Artist (1942). From 1945-1953 he taught at Borough Polytechnic where his pupils included Frank Auerbach and Leon Kossoff. In 1954, he returned to Spain and attempted to set up an art school at Ronda. A retrospective of his work was held at the Tate in 1988.

Places

England, River Thames, London

Subjects

topography, townscape/cityscape, river, dock

Materials & Techniques

paper (as artists material), charcoal, charcoal drawing

Artist

David Bomberg (1890 - 1957)

Title

London River

Date

1946

Medium

charcoal on paper

Dimensions

height: 51.00 cm, width: 64.00 cm

Acquisition

Purchased from the artist's widow, July 1975

Inscription

br: Bomberg 46 ; verso, tr: London River 1946 / by David Bomberg / LD.

Provenance

Selected from a group offered by the artist's widow to the Tate Gallery in 1975

GAC number

11965