William Townsend, 1909-1973

Biography

1909        Born 23 February in Wandsworth, London.
Shortly after his birth the family moves to East Sussex. His mother is a keen supporter of Emaline Pankhurst. His father is a reluctant dentist by profession, but also a poet, man of letters, and author of a biography of Oliver Wendall. He encouraged his precocious son’s passionate interest in the natural world and architecture, and fosterd his capacity for objective observation and recording, qualities that served Townsend well throughout his life. While living in the village of Adversane, the family is visited by the writer Eleanor Farjeon, who recorded in an as yet unpublished memoir: “I also found, among the tribe of children in Adversane, a ten-year-old schoolboy, young Will Townsend, who had inherited his father's frustrated artistry in another form. His fine pen produced not rhymes but feathery grasses, spiders-webs and dragonflies.”

1913          Starts school.

1919        In about 1919, his frequently kept notes and sketches coalesce into a daily journal which, except during the war years, he continued until a few days before his death. These journals are now in the library of University College London.

1926          Publication of Joan’s Door, by Eleanor Farjeon (illustrated by Townsend).
Enters the Slade School of Fine Art, University College London, then headed by Professor Henry Tonks. Contemporaries and close friends include Elinor Bellingham Smith, Tommy Carr, William Coldstream, Anthony Devas, Edgar Hubert, Gabriel Lopez, Nicolette Macnamara, Rodrigo Moynihan, Claude Rogers, and Geoffrey Tibble.

1930        Awarded the Orpen Bursary.
Completes studies at the Slade, and wins the newly-inaugurated Wilson Steer Landscape Prize for At Blashford (now in the collection of the Slade School).
        
1931-3        Spends crucial nine months travelling, to Egypt, France, Italy and Tunisia. Makes paintings and drawings in Florence, Sienna, Rome, and various locations in Egypt and Tunisia.
        
1932        First solo exhibition, Bloomsbury Gallery, London.
        
1933        Makes first paintings of Canterbury Cathedral.
Continues to live and work at his parents’ home at Bridge, near Canterbury, whilst working as a book illustrator.
Becomes infatuated with the ballet and attends first performances of plays, the symphonic repertoire, openings and similar cultural events, usually in London.
        
1935        Invited to contribute a work for an anti-fascist solidarity exhibition. Other artists include Duncan Grant, Paul Nash, Eric Gill, and Henry Moore.

1935-6        Increasingly involved in anti-fascist politics, initially in support of the Basques and Republicans in Spain, then against the rise of Nazism, and the activities of the British Union of Fascists.
                
1938        Invited to stand as Labour parliamentary candidate for Canterbury, but declines. Participates in anti-fascist rallies (including the Surrealist Demonstration in Trafalgar Square of 1 May 1938) until the outbreak of war.

1939        Townsend makes comparatively few figurative paintings during his career but at this time he shows people at work, perhaps influenced by fellow A.I.A. members.

1939-40        Completes sequence of A.R.P. (Air-Raid Precautions) drawings of Canterbury Cathedral, (now in the collection of the Friends of Canterbury Cathedral).
        
1940        Makes prints for the A.I.A. “Everyman Prints” series, intended to make affordable art for the public.
        
1941-6        War service as battery officer in Royal Artillery, later transferring to Army Education Corps, where he works with the musician Eric Fenby (formerly amanuensis to Frederick Delius), and paints his portrait.
        
1942        Marries Mary Baxter on July 4
        
1945        Daughter Charlotte born on July 5
        
1946-9        Teaches at the Camberwell School of Arts and Crafts on a part-time basis.
Makes paintings of post-war London. In a letter to The Times (June, 1947), he and Coldstream call for the preservation of a number of Wren churches burnt out during the Blitz, including St Mary Aldermanbury and St Alban, Wood Street, which are the subjects of paintings by both.
Occasional broadcasting and journalism on architecture and contemporary art.
        
1949        Family moves to Rolvenden, Kent and retains a small flat in London near the Slade. The landscape of the Weald of Kent will dominate his English painting for the rest of his life . Joins teaching staff at the Slade School of Fine Art upon William Coldstream's appointment as Slade Professor. Colleagues will include Stuart Brisley, Reg Butler, Bernard Cohen, Andrew Forge, Patrick George, Nikos Georgiadis, Robert Medley, Thomas Monnington, Claude Rogers, Ian Tregarthen Jenkin and Euan Uglow. Townsend will increasingly urge the recruitment of teachers active in media other than painting and sculpture, thus expanding the scope of the Slade offerings, which leads to the invitation for him to establish the post-graduate programme there in 1968.
        
1950        Begins a long series of drawings and paintings based on the different methods of stringing Kentish hop alleys.
        
1951        Elected to the London Group.
First visit to Canada at the invitation of the Banff School of Fine Arts in Alberta (now the Banff Centre), in the Canadian Rockies, to teach the summer session. Returned to the school for eleven sessions until his death there in 1973. First paintings of Canadian landscapes and studies of mountains derived from sketches en plein air are made over the next two years in his studio in Kent.
Son Nicholas born on 29 December.         
        
1957        Appointed Senior Lecturer in Fine Arts, University College London.
Death of his father.
                
1962-3        Visiting professor in the Department of Fine Arts, University of Alberta, Edmonton. Lives in Edmonton for a year, teaching at the University of Alberta, and serves as consultant to the Canada Council and the National Gallery of Canada. Establishes the Leverhulme Canadian Painting Scholarship for five years with funds from the Leverhulme Trust in London to enable one graduate painting student each year to study in England (holders will include Toni Onley and Michael Morris).
        
1963        Invited to serve as co-selector of works for the first comprehensive exhibition of the works of William Coldstream, organised by the British Council.

1964        Effects the introduction of brother, Peter Townsend, to the publishers of Studio, which leads to Peter assuming the editorship of what will become Studio International.
        
1964-5        Tours Canada as sole juror to select the Sixth Biennial Exhibition of Canadian Painting for the National Gallery of Canada, for which he writes the catalogue essay and notes.
                
1965        Selects works and writes catalogue introduction for International Exhibition of Paintings, Gibraltar Arts Festival.
        
1966        Appointed Head of Painting Division, Banff School of Fine Arts.
        
1967        Resigned from the London Group.
        
1968        Elected Fellow of University College London, and appointed Professor of Fine Art (personal chair), with responsibility for establishing and coordinating the post-graduate programme at the Slade School.
        
1970        Editor and co-author, ‘Canadian Art Today’ (Studio International, London and New York); first published a special issue of Studio International, then as stand-alone publication in hard-back.
                
1973        Dies on 4 July, in Banff, Alberta.
Establishment of annual William Townsend Memorial Lecture at University College London (lecturers will include Norman Bryson, Reg Butler, Anthony Caro, Andrew Causey, Bernard Cohen, Richard Cork, Michael Craig-Martin, Thomas Crow, Richard Deacon, Robyn Denny, Andrew Forge, Anthony Gormley, Peter Greenaway, Richard Hamilton, Anthony Hill, Susan Hillier, Ivon Hitchens, Howard Hodgkin, Norbert Lynton, Kenneth Martin, Leslie Martin, Bruce McLean, Declan McGonagle, Cornelia Parker, Bridget Riley, Richard Rogers, Lawrence Weiner, Rachel Whiteread, and Richard Wollheim).
Townsend Memorial Scholarship established at the Banff Centre.
        
1976        Extracts from the Journals published as The Townsend Journals - An Artist’s Record of his Times 1928-51, edited by Andrew Forge, (Tate Gallery, London, 1976).
        Retrospective exhibition at Tate Gallery, London.
                
2005        William Townsend Symposium, Clare Hall, Cambridge (chaired by Professor Dame Gillian Beer, participants include Professor David Cast, Professor Emeritus Bernard Cohen, Dr. James Hyman, and Dr. Frances Spalding).