George Claude Leon Underwood (25 December 1890 – 9 October 1975) was a British artist, although primarily known as a sculptor, printmaker and painter, he was also an influential teacher and promotor of African art. His travels in Mexico and West Africa had a substantial influence on his art, particularly on the representation of the human figure in his sculptures and paintings. Underwood is best known for his sculptures cast in bronze, carvings in marble, stone and wood and his drawings. His lifetime's work includes a wide range of media and activities, with an expressive and technical mastery. Underwood did not hold modernism and abstraction in art in high regard and this led to critics often ignoring his work until the 1960s when he came to be viewed as an important figure in the development of modern sculpture in Britain.

Biography

Early life

Underwood was born in the west London suburb of

Shepherd's Bush Shepherd's Bush is a suburb of West London, England, within the London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham west of Charing Cross, and identified as a major metropolitan centre in the London Plan. Although primarily residential in character, its ...

. He was the eldest of the three sons of George Underwood, a fine art dealer and he attended Hampden Gurney School. From 1907 to 1910 he attended the

Regent Street Polytechnic The University of Westminster is a public university, public university based in London, United Kingdom. Founded in 1838 as the Royal Polytechnic Institution, it was the first Polytechnic (United Kingdom), polytechnic to open in London. The Po ...

in central London before studying at 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 ...

for three years. While still a student in 1911, Underwood was commissioned to paint a mural for the

Peace Palace The Peace Palace ( ; ) is an international law administrative building in The Hague, Netherlands. It houses the International Court of Justice (which is the principal judicial body of the United Nations), the Permanent Court of Arbitration (PC ...

The Hague The Hague ( ) is the capital city of the South Holland province of the Netherlands. With a population of over half a million, it is the third-largest city in the Netherlands. Situated on the west coast facing the North Sea, The Hague is the c ...

. In 1913 he visited Russia to study the depiction of horses in traditional Russian art.

World War I

In the

First World War World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...

, Underwood enlisted in the

Royal Horse Artillery The Royal Horse Artillery (RHA) was formed in 1793 as a distinct arm of the Royal Regiment of Artillery (commonly termed Royal Artillery) to provide horse artillery support to the cavalry units of the British Army. Although the cavalry link rem ...

before transferring to a field battery unit and then serving as a Captain in the Camouflage Section of the

Royal Engineers The Corps of Royal Engineers, usually called the Royal Engineers (RE), and commonly known as the ''Sappers'', is the engineering arm of the British Army. It provides military engineering and other technical support to the British Armed Forces ...

. He worked with

Solomon Joseph Solomon Solomon Joseph Solomon (16 September 1860 – 27 July 1927) was a British painter, a founding member of the New English Art Club and member of the Royal Academy. Solomon's family was Jewish, and his sister, Lily Delissa Joseph (née S ...

as a camoufleur, creating battlefield observation posts disguised as trees. Underwood's duties on the Western Front included going into No man's land to make detailed drawings of trees which were later replaced with metal replicas used by military observers. He sketched and painted scenes of this work, notably in his 1919 oil painting ''Erecting a Camouflage Tree'', which was intended for the, never built, British national Hall of Remembrance and was in turn purchased by the

Imperial War Museum The Imperial War Museum (IWM), currently branded "Imperial War Museums", is a British national museum. It is headquartered in London, with five branches in England. Founded as the Imperial War Museum in 1917, it was intended to record the civ ...

1920s and 1930s

After the war Underwood attended the

Slade School of Art The UCL Slade School of Fine Art (informally The Slade) is the art school of University College London (UCL) and is based in London, England. It has been ranked as the UK's top art and design educational institution. The school is organised as ...

for a year's refresher course and in 1920 received the

British Prix de Rome The British School at Rome (BSR) is a British interdisciplinary research centre supporting the arts, humanities and architecture established in Rome. Historical and archaeological study are at the core of its activities. History The British Sc ...

but chose not to go to Italy, instead using the grant to travel elsewhere later in the decade. He painted both formal portraits, such as that of the Canadian war hero G.B. McLean, and

Impressionist Impressionism was a 19th-century art movement characterized by visible brush strokes, open Composition (visual arts), composition, emphasis on accurate depiction of light in its changing qualities (often accentuating the effects of the passage ...

works such as the 1921 painting ''Venus in Kensington Gardens''. In his Hammersmith studio Underwood set up a private art school, the Brook Green School, which he ran, intermittently, until 1938. At Brook Green, Underwood initially, concentrated on teaching printmaking with woodcutting but also began making sculptures. In 1925, with some of his past pupils, Underwood created the English Wood-Engraving Society to promote the art form. Later in his career, between 1935 and 1945 Underwood created a significant number of colour linocuts. In 1922 Underwood had his first solo exhibition at the Chenil Gallery in London. An exhibition of his sculptures was held in 1924. He also taught a life drawing class at the

from 1920 until 1923 when he resigned and travelled to Paris and Iceland. In 1925 he became the first contemporary artist to spend time examining the cave paintings at Altamira in Spain. Underwood spent 1926 in the United States where he published an illustrated book of verse, ''Animalia'', illustrated some volumes by others and also painted and made engravings. In

Greenwich Village Greenwich Village, or simply the Village, is a neighborhood on the west side of Lower Manhattan in New York City, bounded by 14th Street (Manhattan), 14th Street to the north, Broadway (Manhattan), Broadway to the east, Houston Street to the s ...

he opened a life-drawing school. In 1927 he went to Mexico, spending five months travelling and studying

Aztec The Aztecs ( ) were a Mesoamerican civilization that flourished in central Mexico in the Post-Classic stage, post-classic period from 1300 to 1521. The Aztec people included different Indigenous peoples of Mexico, ethnic groups of central ...

and

Mayan Mayan most commonly refers to: * Maya peoples, various indigenous peoples of Mesoamerica and northern Central America * Maya civilization, pre-Columbian culture of Mesoamerica and northern Central America * Mayan languages, language family spoken ...

art forms. King George VI by Leon Underwood 02

After returning to England in late 1928 Underwood made a number of paintings on Mexican themes, including imagined portraits of

Montezuma II Moctezuma Xocoyotzin . ( – 29 June 1520), retroactively referred to in European sources as Moctezuma II, and often simply called Montezuma,Other variant spellings include Moctezuma, Motewksomah, Motecuhzomatzin, Moteuczoma, Motecuhzoma, Motē ...

and

Hernán Cortés Hernán Cortés de Monroy y Pizarro Altamirano, 1st Marquis of the Valley of Oaxaca (December 1485 – December 2, 1547) was a Spanish ''conquistador'' who led an expedition that caused the fall of the Aztec Empire and brought large portions o ...

, the latter holding a stone heart in front of a ruined castle. He also created several surrealist paintings, six of which were shown at the first, and only, exhibition of The Neo Society held at the Godfrey Phillips Gallery in London in May 1930. With funding from

Eileen Agar Eileen Forrester Agar (1 December 1899 – 17 November 1991) was an Argentine-British painter and photographer associated with the Surrealist movement. Biography Agar was born in Buenos Aires, to a Scottish father and American mother. Her fathe ...

, Underwood co-founded a graphical quarterly magazine, ''The Island'', in 1931 which, despite contributions from

Henry Moore Henry Spencer Moore (30 July 1898 – 31 August 1986) was an English artist. He is best known for his semi-abstract art, abstract monumental Bronze sculpture, bronze sculptures which are located around the world as public works of art. Moore ...

, Agar,

CRW Nevinson Christopher Richard Wynne Nevinson (13 August 1889 – 7 October 1946) was an English figure and landscape painter, etcher and lithographer, who was one of the most famous war artists of World War I. He is often referred to by his initial ...

and

Mahatma Gandhi Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi (2October 186930January 1948) was an Indian lawyer, anti-colonial nationalism, anti-colonial nationalist, and political ethics, political ethicist who employed nonviolent resistance to lead the successful Indian ...

was only published for four issues. From 1932 to 1934, Underwood made a series of sculptures of dancing figures including ''Herald of New Day'', the plaster cast of which is now in the

Tate Tate is an institution that houses, in a network of four art galleries, the United Kingdom's national collection of British art, and international modern and contemporary art. It is not a government institution, but its main sponsor is the UK ...

collection. In 1934 he published an artistic manifesto, ''Art for Heaven's Sake: Notes on a Philosophy of Art''. Underwood was always convinced that subject matter formed a fundamental role behind the power of both his own and primitive art, and had no belief in subject-less or purely abstract form in his own work. Underwood's 1935

lignum vitae Lignum vitae (), also called guayacan or guaiacum, and in parts of Europe known as Pockholz or pokhout, is a wood from trees of the genus '' Guaiacum''. The trees are indigenous to the Caribbean and the northern coast of South America (e.g., Co ...

carving ''African Madonna'', or ''Black Virgin'', was inspired by a

Bantu Bantu may refer to: *Bantu languages, constitute the largest sub-branch of the Niger–Congo languages *Bantu peoples, over 400 peoples of Africa speaking a Bantu language * Bantu knots, a type of African hairstyle *Black Association for National ...

carving and is sited in St George's Cathedral, Cape Town. Underwood's 1937 bronze sculpture of King

George VI George VI (Albert Frederick Arthur George; 14 December 1895 – 6 February 1952) was King of the United Kingdom and the Dominions of the British Commonwealth from 11 December 1936 until Death and state funeral of George VI, his death in 1952 ...

, now in the

National Portrait Gallery, London The National Portrait Gallery (NPG) is an art gallery in London that houses a collection of portraits of historically important and famous British people. When it opened in 1856, it was arguably the first national public gallery in the world th ...

, had originally been intended to be of

Edward VIII Edward VIII (Edward Albert Christian George Andrew Patrick David; 23 June 1894 – 28 May 1972), later known as the Duke of Windsor, was King of the United Kingdom and the Dominions of the British Empire, and Emperor of India, from 20 January ...

but was reworked after the abdication of December 1936. When first shown in public, the

Buckingham Palace Buckingham Palace () is a royal official residence, residence in London, and the administrative headquarters of the monarch of the United Kingdom. Located in the City of Westminster, the palace is often at the centre of state occasions and r ...

authorities asked that it be removed from view. In 1938, Underwood closed the Brook Green School. During the School's existence, its students had included Henry Moore, Eileen Agar, Gertrude Hermes,

Blair Hughes-Stanton Blair Rowlands Hughes-Stanton (22 February 1902 – 6 June 1981) was a major figure in the English wood-engraving revival in the twentieth century. He was the son of the artist Sir Herbert Hughes-Stanton. He exhibited with the Society of Woo ...

Raymond Coxon Raymond James Coxon (18 August 1896 – 31 January 1997) was an English artist. He enrolled at the Leeds School of Art, the Royal College of Art, and became a teacher in the Richmond School of Art. The creative work of his long and successf ...

, Edna Ginesi and Roland Vivian Pitchforth. Moore later spoke of his indebtedness to Underwood's teaching.

World War II

From 1939 to 1942, during

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

, Underwood worked at the civil defence camouflage centre at

Leamington Spa Royal Leamington Spa, commonly known as Leamington Spa or simply LeamingtonEven more colloquially, also referred to as Lem or Leam (). (), is a spa town and civil parish in Warwickshire, England. Originally a small village called Leamington Pri ...

. In 1944, having long collected and studied non-Western art, he undertook a lecture tour, sponsored by the

British Council The British Council is a British organisation specialising in international cultural and educational opportunities. It works in over 100 countries: promoting a wider knowledge of the United Kingdom and the English language (and the Welsh lang ...

, of west Africa and on his return to Britain wrote three books on aspects of African art. These included a study of the Ife and

Benin Benin, officially the Republic of Benin, is a country in West Africa. It was formerly known as Dahomey. It is bordered by Togo to the west, Nigeria to the east, Burkina Faso to the north-west, and Niger to the north-east. The majority of its po ...

heads, ''Bronzes of West Africa'' which showed a pioneering appreciation of their artistic significance and his understanding of their relationship to the culture and technology from which they originated. Underwood had begun collecting African art in 1919 and, after his 1944 tour, had acquired over 550 pieces including several significant works by Yoruba artists, including sculptures by Olowe of Ise. Some of these works Underwood later sold to the

British Museum The British Museum is a Museum, public museum dedicated to human history, art and culture located in the Bloomsbury area of London. Its permanent collection of eight million works is the largest in the world. It documents the story of human cu ...

while others were eventually acquired by

National Museum of African Art The National Museum of African Art is the Smithsonian Institution's African art museum, located on the National Mall of the Washington, D.C., United States capital. Its collections include 9,000 works of traditional and contemporary African ar ...

and the

Metropolitan Museum of Art The Metropolitan Museum of Art, colloquially referred to as the Met, is an Encyclopedic museum, encyclopedic art museum in New York City. By floor area, it is the List of largest museums, third-largest museum in the world and the List of larg ...

in the United States. His access to the cave paintings of Altamira in Spain ignited his "New Philosophy" with regard to this interrelationship of the expressiveness and technology of primitive art.

Later life

From 1948 onwards, Underwood cast his bronze sculptures in his own studio and throughout the 1950s, concentrated on his sculpture and on promoting his theories and philosophy of art. In 1961 Underwood was elected an Honorary Member of the

Royal Society of Sculptors The Royal Society of Sculptors (RSS) is a British charity established in 1905, which promotes excellence in the art and practice of sculpture. Its headquarters are a centre for contemporary sculpture on Old Brompton Road in South Kensington, Lo ...

and further recognition followed in 1969 when the first full-scale retrospective of his work was held at The Minories in Colchester. The art historian

John Rothenstein Sir John Knewstub Maurice Rothenstein (11 July 1901 – 27 February 1992) was a British arts administrator and art historian. Biography John Rothenstein was born in London in 1901, the son of Sir William Rothenstein. The family was connec ...

wrote in the introduction to that exhibition that Underwood was "..the most versatile artist at work in Britain today..". However it was to be over forty years before the next major retrospective of his work was held, in 2015 at the

Pallant House Gallery Pallant House Gallery is an art gallery in Chichester, West Sussex, England. It houses one of the best collections of 20th-century British art in the world. History The Gallery's collection is founded on works left to the city of Chichester by ...

. This lack of attention has been attributed to the range and versatility of Underwood's output which, across the various media he worked in, lacked a common recognisable style that was easy to promote and also to his, sometimes, complex and esoteric philosophies and theories on art. Underwood was married to Mary Coleman. They first met in 1911 at the Royal College of Art, married in 1917 and their first child was born in 1919. They had two sons, Garth (a zoologist) and John, and one daughter, Jean.

Public commissions

*''Tempera mural for Shell canteen'' London, 1954 *''Relief panel (a larger version of "Light Industries and Secretariat", 1953') for the Commercial Development Building,'' 49-59 Old Street, London, EC1V 9HX, 1955 *''Reredos, side chapel and stained glass window'', St Michael and All Angels, New Marston, Oxford, 1955 *''Bronze candlesticks and crucifix'' Ampleforth Abbey, 1958.

Selected publications

*''Animalia''. Payson and Clarke, 1926. *''The Siamese Cat''.

Brentano's Brentano's was an American bookstore chain with numerous locations in the United States. As of the 1970s, there were four Brentano's in New York: the Fifth Avenue flagship store at Rockefeller Center, one in Greenwich Village, one in Manhasset ...

, 1928. *''The Red Tiger'', 1929, by Phillip Russell, illustrated by Underwood, an account of their joint travels in Mexico. *''Art for Heaven's Sake: Notes on a Philosophy of Art'', 1934 *''Figures in Wood of West Africa''. Alec Tiranti, 1947. *''Masks of West Africa''. Alec Tiranti, 1948. *''Bronzes of West Africa''. Alec Tiranti, 1949. *''Bronze Age Technology in Western Asia and Northern Europe'', 1958.

Museums and public collections

Public collections holding works by Underwood include * the

Courtauld Institute of Art The Courtauld Institute of Art (), commonly referred to as The Courtauld, is a self-governing college of the University of London specialising in the study of the history of art and conservation. The art collection is known particularly for ...

, London (39 works) * the

Tate Gallery Tate is an institution that houses, in a network of four art galleries, the United Kingdom's national collection of British art, and international modern and contemporary art. It is not a government institution, but its main sponsor is the UK ...

, London (8 works) * the

, (4 works) * the Ingram Collection, The Lightbox, Woking (2 works) * the

Victoria and Albert Museum The Victoria and Albert Museum (abbreviated V&A) in London is the world's largest museum of applied arts, decorative arts and design, housing a permanent collection of over 2.8 million objects. It was founded in 1852 and named after Queen ...

, London, archive of 206 drawings and sketches * the

Ashmolean Museum The Ashmolean Museum of Art and Archaeology () on Beaumont Street in Oxford, England, is Britain's first public museum. Its first building was erected in 1678–1683 to house the cabinet of curiosities that Elias Ashmole gave to the University ...

, Oxford * the

National Museum Cardiff National Museum Cardiff (), formerly known as the National Museum of Wales, is a museum and art gallery in Cardiff, Wales. The museum is part of the wider network of Amgueddfa Cymru – Museum Wales. Entry is kept free by a grant from the Wel ...

(two works) * the

Collection, London, (five works) * Hammersmith and Fulham Archives (15 works) * The Victor Batte-Lay Trust Collection at The Minories (two works) * The Brooklyn Museum (three works) * Leamington Spa Art Gallery & Museum (six works) * the

Henry Moore Institute The Henry Moore Foundation is a registered charity in England, established for education and promotion of the fine arts — in particular, to advance understanding of the works of Henry Moore, and to promote the public appreciation of sculpt ...

in Leeds hold archives of Underwood's correspondence and other material.

Exhibitions

*''Leon Underwood, Mexican Wood engravings''. St George's Gallery, 1928 *''Leon Underwood, Mexican watercolours''. St George's Gallery, 1929 *''Sculpture, Paintings, Drawings and Engravings by Leon Underwood''.

Leicester Galleries Leicester Galleries was an art gallery located in London from 1902 to 1977 that held exhibitions of modern British, French and international artists' works. Its name was acquired in 1984 by Peter Nahum, who operates "Peter Nahum at the Leiceste ...

, 1934 *''Sculpture in the Home''.

Arts Council An arts council is a government or private non-profit organization dedicated to promoting the arts; mainly by funding local artists, awarding prizes, and organizing arts events. They often operate at arms-length from the government to prevent pol ...

, 1946 *''Leon Underwood''.

Beaux Arts Gallery Beaux Arts Gallery was a gallery at 1 Bruton Place, London, England. It was known as a preeminent center for promoting avant-garde art until its closure in 1965. Founded and operated by portrait sculptor Frederick Lessore in 1923, the gallery wa ...

, 1953 *''Bronzes and Wood Engravings by Leon Underwood''.

Thomas Agnew & Sons Thomas Agnew & Sons is a art dealer, fine arts dealer in London that began as a print and publishing partnership between Thomas Agnew and Vittore Zanetti in Manchester in 1817. Agnew ended the partnership by taking full control of the company in 183 ...

, 1973 *''Leon Underwood, Mexico and After''.

National Museum of Wales National may refer to: Common uses * Nation or country ** Nationality – a ''national'' is a person who is subject to a nation, regardless of whether the person has full rights as a citizen Places in the United States * National, Maryland, c ...

, 1979 *''Modern British Sculpture''.

Royal Academy of Arts 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 ...

, 2011 *''Mexico A revolution in art 1910-1940''.

, 2013 *''The Sensory War 1914-2014''.

Manchester Art Gallery Manchester Art Gallery, formerly Manchester City Art Gallery, is a publicly owned art museum on Mosley Street in Manchester city centre, England. The main gallery premises were built for a learned society in 1823 and today its collection occupi ...

, 2014 *''Leon Underwood, Figure and Rhythm''.

, 2015 *''Becoming Henry Moore''.

Henry Moore Foundation The Henry Moore Foundation is a registered charity in England, established for education and promotion of the fine arts — in particular, to advance understanding of the works of Henry Moore, and to promote the public appreciation of sculpt ...

, 2017

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Underwood, Leon 1890 births 1975 deaths 20th-century English male artists 20th-century English sculptors 20th-century British engravers Alumni of the Royal College of Art Alumni of the Regent Street Polytechnic Alumni of the Slade School of Fine Art British Army personnel of World War I Camoufleurs English illustrators English male sculptors English wood engravers Military personnel from the London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham People from Shepherd's Bush Prix de Rome (Britain) winners Royal Engineers officers Sculptors from London World War I artists 20th-century British war artists