John Gordon Bensusan-Butt (6 June 1911 – 22 August 1997) was an English landscape painter and author. The son of Geoffrey C. Butt (later Bensusan-Butt) and his wife Ruth Bensusan, a physician, he was educated at

Gresham's School Gresham's School is a private school (English fee-charging boarding and day school) in Holt, Norfolk, England, one of the top thirty International Baccalaureate schools in England. The school was founded in 1555 by Sir John Gresham as a f ...

Magdalen College, Oxford Magdalen College ( ) is a Colleges of the University of Oxford, constituent college of the University of Oxford. It was founded in 1458 by Bishop of Winchester William of Waynflete. It is one of the wealthiest Oxford colleges, as of 2022, and ...

, the

Royal College of Art The Royal College of Art (RCA) is a public university, public research university in London, United Kingdom, with campuses in South Kensington, Battersea and White City, London, White City. It is the only entirely postgraduate art and design uni ...

, and the Central School of Art and Crafts."BENSUSAN-BUTT, John Gordon, landscape painter" in Bernard Dolman, ed., ''Who's Who in Art'', Vol. 26 (Art Trade Press, 1994), p. 36 His aunt Esther Bensusan was the wife of

Lucien Pissarro Lucien Pissarro (20 February 1863 – 10 July 1944) was a French landscape painter, printmaker, wood engraver, designer, and printer of fine books. His landscape paintings employ techniques of Impressionism and Neo-Impressionism, but he also ...

, son of

Camille Pissarro Jacob Abraham Camille Pissarro ( ; ; 10 July 1830 – 13 November 1903) was a Danish-French Impressionist and Neo-Impressionist painter born on the island of St Thomas (now in the US Virgin Islands, but then in the Danish West Indies). ...

, and Bensusan-Butt grew up with their work around him, at the Minories,

Colchester Colchester ( ) is a city in northeastern Essex, England. It is the second-largest settlement in the county, with a population of 130,245 at the 2021 United Kingdom census, 2021 Census. The demonym is ''Colcestrian''. Colchester occupies the ...

, now a museum and art gallery. From 1935, Lucien Pissarro became his adviser and artistic mentor, and the two men worked together at

Cotignac Cotignac (; ) is a commune in the Var department in the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region in southeastern France. It is a member of Les Plus Beaux Villages de France (The Most Beautiful Villages of France) Association. Geography Climate Cot ...

and at the Minories, where Pissarro often stayed."John Bensusan-Butt (1911–1997)"
vblfcollection.org.uk, accessed 18 October 2023 Bensusan-Butt exhibited at the

Royal Academy The Royal Academy of Arts (RA) is an art institution based in Burlington House in Piccadilly London, England. Founded in 1768, it has a unique position as an independent, privately funded institution led by eminent artists and architects. Its ...

and was the art critic of the ''

Essex County Standard The ''Essex County Standard'' is a weekly newspaper, published in Colchester, Essex. It is currently owned by the Newsquest Media Group, part of the American Gannett Company. History The Essex County Standard was founded in January 1831, the ...

'' from 1950 to 1966. He died in August 1997, while still living in Colchester.''

The London Gazette ''The London Gazette'', known generally as ''The Gazette'', is one of the official journals of record or government gazettes of the Government of the United Kingdom, and the most important among such official journals in the United Kingdom, i ...

'', 5 January 1998
L-55005-525
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Selected publications

*John Bensusan-Butt, ''Lucien Pissarro 1863-1944'' (London: Anthony d’Offey, 1963) *John Bensusan-Butt, ''The House That Boggis Built: a Social History of the Minories, Colchester'' (Victor Butte-Lay Trust, 1972) *John Bensusan-Butt, ''The Eragny Press 1894–1914'' (Colchester, 1973) *John Bensusan-Butt, ''Recollections of Lucien Pissarro in his seventies'' (London: 1977) *John Bensusan-Butt, ''On Naturalness in Art'' (1981) *John Bensusan-Butt, ''Colchester People: the John Bensusan Butt biographical dictionary of eighteenth-century Colchester''

Notes

{{DEFAULTSORT:Bensusan-Butt, John 1911 births 1997 deaths 20th-century English painters Alumni of the Central School of Art and Design Alumni of Magdalen College, Oxford Alumni of the Royal College of Art People educated at Gresham's School People from Colchester