Circus Folk

Location

Country: UK
City: London
Place: Government Art Collection

David Bomberg, today acknowledged as an influential modern British artist, was much-neglected in his lifetime. He grew up in a Jewish neighbourhood in east London and attended Walter Sickert's classes at Westminster School (1908 -1910). In 1915 Bomberg enlisted in the Royal Engineers. The failure of his solo exhibition in 1919 led to his retirement from British artistic life. He lived in Palestine from 1923 to 1927. During the Second World War he was an Official War Artist (1942). From 1945-1953 he taught at Borough Polytechnic where his pupils included Frank Auerbach and Leon Kossoff. In 1954, he returned to Spain and attempted to set up an art school at Ronda. A retrospective of his work was held at the Tate in 1988.

Places

Subjects

circus, abstract

Materials & Techniques

paper (as artists material), oil, oil painting

Artist

David Bomberg (1890 - 1957)

Title

Circus Folk

Date

1920

Medium

Oil on paper

Dimensions

height: 25.70 cm, width: 35.00 cm

Acquisition

Purchased from Belgrave Gallery, November 1978

Inscription

br: Bomberg ; verso: Circus Folk by David Bomberg 1920 Authd by Lilian Bomberg.

Provenance

Collection of Lilian Bomberg; from whom purchased by the Belgrave Gallery, London; from whom purchased by the Ministry of Works in November 1978

GAC number

14298