Theodore Major (19 February 1908 – 17 January 1999) was an English artist who was considered a great individualist of

British Art The art of the United Kingdom refers to all forms of visual art in or associated with the country since the formation of the Kingdom of Great Britain in 1707 and encompasses English art, Scottish art, Welsh art and Irish art, and forms part ...

Biography

Born in

Wigan Wigan ( ) is a town in Greater Manchester, England. The town is midway between the two cities of Manchester, to the south-east, and Liverpool, to the south-west. It is the largest settlement in the Metropolitan Borough of Wigan and is its ad ...

Lancashire Lancashire ( , ; abbreviated ''Lancs'') is a ceremonial county in North West England. It is bordered by Cumbria to the north, North Yorkshire and West Yorkshire to the east, Greater Manchester and Merseyside to the south, and the Irish Sea to ...

, England, Major insisted that he was essentially self-taught as an artist. He studied at Wigan Art School between 1927 and 1932, and taught there between 1930 and 1950, and in 1952 founded the Wigan Arts Club. Major established a reputation as a Lancashire artist. He drew cartoons for the ''

Daily Mail The ''Daily Mail'' is a British daily Middle-market newspaper, middle-market Tabloid journalism, tabloid conservative newspaper founded in 1896 and published in London. , it has the List of newspapers in the United Kingdom by circulation, h ...

'' and the ''

Manchester Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in Manchester in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'' and changed its name in 1959, followed by a move to London. Along with its sister paper, ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardi ...

.'' He shared exhibitions with his close contemporary L. S. Lowry. He was a member of the Manchester Group, along with Lowry, exhibiting at the Mid-Day Studios founded and run by Margo Ingham and Ned Owens. Major became noted for his grim depictions of Wigan streets and factories, pictures of children, of lonely

seascape A seascape is a photograph, painting, or other work of art which depicts the sea, in other words an example of marine art. The word originated as a formation from landscape, which was first used for images of land in art. By a similar de ...

s, of nudes and nightmare imaginations. "To disturb and extend consciousness in the mind of the viewer" was his declared aim. He declined to sell pictures, "not to the people who want them, the rich people". He eventually had to buy the house, next door to his studio in

Appley Bridge Appley Bridge is a village in West Lancashire, England. It straddles the borders of Greater Manchester and Lancashire, England. It is located off Junction 27 of the M6 motorway and is nestled in the Douglas Valley alongside the Leeds and Live ...

, as a store. He used a small front bedroom, with a good light, as a studio. He kept around 3000 of his pictures back from sale, saying that they were painted for ordinary people, not money. He used the house next door as a gallery and the general public were welcome to view his paintings free of charge. The art critic and novelist

John Berger John Peter Berger ( ; 5 November 1926 – 2 January 2017) was an English art critic, novelist, painter and poet. His novel '' G.'' won the 1972 Booker Prize, and his essay on art criticism '' Ways of Seeing'', written as an accompaniment to t ...

has described Major's pictures as "among the best English paintings of our time".

References

1908 births 1999 deaths English artists People from Appley Bridge People from Wigan {{England-artist-stub