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Ernest Greenwood PRWS (1913-2009)


Ernest Greenwood, PRWS (1913-2009)

Though the painter and printmaker, Ernest Greenwood, first established himself with portraits and figure subjects, including murals, he became better known for his gentle Neo-Romantic landscapes, which ‘often have a Palmeresque atmosphere of mystery’ (Alan Windsor (ed), Handbook of Modern British Painting 1900-1980, Aldershot: Scolar Press, 1992, page 123). A successful teacher and administrator, he also helped revive the fortunes of the Royal Society of Painters in Water-Colours, while he was its President.

Ernest Greenwood was born in Welling, Kent, on 12 February 1913, the sixth of seven children of the shipping engineer, Owen Charles Greenwood, and his wife, Annie (née Bradshaw). His father died when he was very young and the family then lived in poverty.

Greenwood was educated at Gravesend Grammar School and, from 1927, studied at Gravesend School of Art. In 1931, he won a scholarship to the Royal College of Art, in London, where he studied painting under William Rothenstein, John Nash, Alan Sorrell and Gilbert Spencer: When it was agreed that Sorrell should produce a series of murals for the public library in Southend-on-Sea, Essex, Greenwood was taken on as his assistant. A travelling scholarship, in 1934, enabled Greenwood to spend time at the British School at Rome, and in Paris and Copenhagen. A year later, he returned to the RCA, in order to study etching and engraving under Malcolm Osborne and Robert Sargent Austin.

Whie at the RCA, Greenwood met his future wife, Eileen Messenger, who was a student in the design school.

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