ELWIN HENRY HAWTHORNE
SUNDAY Series on ART of Architecture -by -Gautam Shah
Post - 375
Elwin Hawthorne (1905-1954) was a British painter. He and his wife, both were members, of the ‘East London Group’ (which emphasized urban realism through shared outdoor painting trips to locations in Essex, Kent, and Sussex ). His father was also a painter and decorator. Elwin had no formal training, except few ‘hobby’ classes. He was often described as an English Utrillo (a Paris-based urban artist).
Hawthorne painted a number of buildings of London, including, St John-at-Hampstead, St Andrew's church in Vanbrugh Park, North Foreland Lighthouse. He was a versatile artist, in oils, watercolour and printmaking. He concentrated intensively in oil painting, just for fifteen years (1925-40). He met Walter Sickert, and became his studio assistant for three years.
Hawthorne’s style of painting was of extensive use of subdued colours, good rendering of architectural form and urban ordinary urban scenes, but without embellishment. He captured melancholy quietude, nostalgia of urban environments with characteristic softness.
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