INF3-23 Harvesting Artist Allinson 1939-1946

Adrian Allinson (9 January 1890 – 20 February 1959) was a British painter, potter and engraver known for his landscapes of Southern Europe and North Africa, and for a series of notable posters he made for London Transport.

Life and career

Allinson was born in London, the eldest son of a doctor, Thomas Allinson, whose advocacy of vegetarianism and contraception had led to his being struck off the medical register. His mother, the granddaughter of a Polish rabbi, was a portrait painter who had studied in Berlin. His brother was physician

Bertrand P. Allinson Bertrand Peter Allinson (12 August 1891 – 1 April 1975) was an English physician, Naturopathy, naturopath and writer. He was also an anti-vaccination, anti-vivisection and vegetarianism activist. Life and career Allinson was the son of Thom ...

. After leaving Wycliffe College, Allinson began studying medicine, but gave this up and turned instead to art, gaining a scholarship in his second year at the Slade School of Fine Art. Graduating in 1910, he travelled to Europe to study in Paris and in Munich. Following his first exhibition, at the Alpine Club Gallery, in February 1911, he became one of the founding members of the Camden Town Group, and with other members later joined with the Vorticists to form The London Group. A pacifist, Allinson associated himself with the

Bloomsbury Group The Bloomsbury Group—or Bloomsbury Set—was a group of associated English writers, intellectuals, philosophers and artists in the first half of the 20th century, including Virginia Woolf, John Maynard Keynes, E. M. Forster and Lytton Strac ...

during the First World War, producing drawings for the

Daily Express The ''Daily Express'' is a national daily United Kingdom middle-market newspaper printed in tabloid format. Published in London, it is the flagship of Express Newspapers, owned by publisher Reach plc. It was first published as a broadsheet i ...

newspaper and one of his most important works, a scene inside the Café Royal made in 1915–16. He also designed sets for the Beecham Opera Company. In 1916 he was registered as a

conscientious objector A conscientious objector (often shortened to conchie) is an "individual who has claimed the right to refuse to perform military service" on the grounds of freedom of thought, conscience, or religion. The term has also been extended to object ...

. Following the war he again travelled to Europe. He became a member of the Royal Society of British Artists in 1933 and of the Royal Institute of Oil Painters in 1936. During the 1930s he made a series of posters for London Transport, and for the Empire Marketing Board. He was selected as a government war artist by the War Artists Advisory Committee during World War II. After the war, he taught at the Westminster Technical Institute. Some months before his death, he participated in the creation of a wax sculpture of

Kwame Nkrumah Kwame Nkrumah (born 21 September 190927 April 1972) was a Ghanaian politician, political theorist, and revolutionary. He was the first Prime Minister and President of Ghana, having led the Gold Coast to independence from Britain in 1957. An in ...

for

Madame Tussauds Madame Tussauds (, ) is a wax museum founded in 1835 by French wax sculptor Marie Tussaud in London, spawning similar museums in major cities around the world. While it used to be spelled as "Madame Tussaud's"; the apostrophe is no longer us ...

. Allinson died on 20 February 1959.

References

External links

Works by Allinson held by the V&A
{{DEFAULTSORT:Allinson, Adrian 1890 births 1959 deaths 20th-century English painters Alumni of the Slade School of Fine Art Artists from London British conscientious objectors English male painters People educated at Wycliffe College, Gloucestershire Members of the Royal Institute of Oil Painters 20th-century English male artists