(1905 - 1983)
John Aldridge landscape painter and book illustrator, was born in Woolwich, London. A classical scholar at Corpus Christi, Oxford, he received no formal art training but started drawing and painting when he was very young. In 1928 he settled in Chiswick and moved permanently to Great Bardfield in Essex in 1933, the year of his first one-man show at the Leicester Galleries in London.
As well as exhibiting at the Leicester Galleries, Aldridge also showed his work in 1931 with the artists of Seven and Five Society, at the request of Ben Nicholson. He made excursions to Paris, Rome, Germany and Tenerife, and at the invitation of Robert Graves and Laura Riding, stayed at Deya, Graves's home in Majorca, of which he was very fond. Among his other friends were the poet Norman Cameron, and the artists Cedric Morris and John Nash. The influence of John Nash can be seen in this painting, with its soft palette, long shadows and ordered presentation of the landscape.
Aldridge also loved to paint in Italy, where much of his time in war service was spent as a photographic interpreter for the detection of camouflaged enemy defences. He taught for many years from 1949 at the Slade School, under Sir William Coldstream, where he proved a very successful teacher.
Aldridge was elected Associate of the Royal Academy in 1954 and a full member in 1963. He exhibited at the Venice Biennale in 1934 and mainly in London thereafter. Aldridge celebrated his 75th birthday exhibition at the New Grafton Gallery in London in 1980. His portrait of Robert Graves is in the National Portrait Gallery, and his work is represented in the Tate, and in public galleries in Aberdeen, Leeds, Manchester, Newport, and Northampton.
