€200 - €400
Star Lot: Bruce Hurn (1926-2020) A large original Bruce Hurn (1926-2020) watercolour and acrylic on paper painting. Features a countryside landscape scene. Rendered in shades of greens with orange brown highlights and blue skies. Signed bottom right and dated 1953. Housed in a decorative gilt frame behind glass.
MM: 78 x 61 cm including frame. Previous in auction 18/08 lot 914
Artist, teacher and art inspector, born in Spalding, Lincolnshire, John Bruce Hurn studied at Birmingham College of Art, gaining his art teacher’s diploma in 1946, having been medically discharged from the Royal Navy in 1944. In 1947 Hurn gained a Worshipful Company of Goldsmiths design prize. From 1946–7 Hurn was a tutor at Bournville, Moseley and Nuneaton Schools of Art; from 1947–73 director of art and design at King Edward’s School, Birmingham, and, concurrently, headmaster of Moseley Branch School of Art, 1952–73. In 1956 he painted the T C Kemp Memorial Crucifixion at King’s Edward’s School chapel, in memory of the notable Birmingham Post drama critic.Hurn was next appointed Her Majesty’s Inspector of Schools for art and design, 1973–86, moving to Chislehurst, Kent. He also examined for various United Kingdom boards of education. Among society affiliations was RBSA from 1965, and he was its treasurer and then president, 1973–4. Hurn was with Christopher Dodds responsible for Practical Biology, 1964, a popular manual for which he provided 750–800 drawings. Solo shows included Compendium Gallery in London and Moseley, also the Universities of Keele, Brunel, Kent, Oxford, Birmingham and Leicester. Hurn claimed an interest in a wide range of artists, including David Bomberg, Peter Lanyon and Paul Nash, Morandi, Nolde and Soutine, who had “no doubt had an effect” on his pictures. He “drew constantly”, qualities of light and the landscapes of England, Wales, Jordan and Judea providing subjects.
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