Rodney Gladwell (1928–1979) was a British artist born in

Didcot Didcot ( ) is a railway town and Civil parishes in England, civil parish in South Oxfordshire, England, located south of Oxford, east of Wantage and north west of Reading, Berkshire, Reading. Historically part of Berkshire, the town is noted ...

, Oxfordshire, England whose paintings "hover between abstraction and figuration and play on this ambiguity". Between 1949 and 1950, he followed in the foot steps of one of the greatest figurative painters of the 20th Century

Amedeo Modigliani Amedeo Clemente Modigliani (; ; 12 July 1884 – 24 January 1920) was an Italian painter and sculptor of the École de Paris who worked mainly in France. He is known for portraits and nudes in a modern art, modern style characterized by a surre ...

and studied in Paris at the

Académie Colarossi The Académie Colarossi (1870–1930) was an art school in Paris founded in 1870 by the Italian model and sculptor Filippo Colarossi. It was originally located on the Île de la Cité, and it moved in 1879 to 10 rue de la Grande-Chaumière in the ...

. His work varied but a continual theme was his "heavily stylised female nudes". He exhibited in London and Paris with the

Piccadilly Gallery The Piccadilly Gallery was a London-based art gallery that operated from 1953 until 2007. The gallery was founded in 1953 as the Pilkington Gallery by art dealer Godfrey Pilkington and his wife, Eve. Christabel Briggs joined as a partner in 19 ...

, before being taken on by the gallery owner

Lucy Wertheim Lucy Carrington Wertheim (''née'' Pearson; 4 April 1883, in Seedley, Pendleton,_Greater_Manchester, Pendleton, Lancashire – 1971, in Brighton) was an English gallery owner who founded the Twenties Group of "English artists in their twenties" ...

and towards the end of his career the noted Swiss dealer

Walter Feilchenfeldt Walter Feilchenfeldt (born 21 January 1894 in Berlin; died 9 December 1953 in Zürich) was a German art dealer and publisher. Life and work Walter Feilchenfeldt was born in Berlin on 21 January 1894, the son of a doctor. In 1919 he began working f ...

. In the 1960s, he undertook several large commissions to paint extensive murals for

Sussex University The University of Sussex is a public research university located in Falmer, East Sussex, England. It lies mostly within the city boundaries of Brighton and Hove. Its large campus site is surrounded by the South Downs National Park, and provide ...

(where he was later given a retrospective exhibition) and the Georgian Club in London. His work is held by the

Arts Council of Great Britain The Arts Council of Great Britain was a non-departmental public body dedicated to the promotion of the fine arts in Great Britain. It was divided in 1994 to form the Arts Council of England (now Arts Council England), the Scottish Arts Council (l ...

and

University of Johannesburg The University of Johannesburg, colloquially known as UJ, is a public university A public university, state university, or public college is a university or college that is State ownership, owned by the state or receives significant fundi ...

. In the 1970s, his work fell out of favour and he disappeared from the art scene.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Gladwell, Rodney 1979 deaths 1928 births 20th-century English painters English male painters English muralists Académie Colarossi alumni 20th-century English male artists