Alan Sorrell Explained

Alan Sorrell
Birth Name:	Alan Ernest Sorrell
Birth Date:	11 February 1904
Birth Place:	Tooting, London, England
Death Place:	Southend-on-Sea, Essex, England
Nationality:	English
Field:	Watercolour, Archaeological illustration
Movement:	Neo-romanticism
Elected:	Royal Watercolour Society

Alan Ernest Sorrell (11 February 1904 – 21 December 1974) was an English artist and writer best remembered for his archaeological illustrations, particularly his detailed reconstructions of Roman Britain. He was a Senior Assistant Instructor of Drawing at The Royal College of Art, between 1931–39 and 1946–48. In 1937 he was elected a member of the Royal Watercolour Society.

Early life

Sorrell was born in Tooting, London, and moved to Southend, Essex, at the age of two.^[1] The son and second child of Ernest Thomas Sorrell (1861–1910), a jeweller and watchmaker, and his wife Edith Jane Sorrell, née Doody (1867–1951), Alan Sorrell would often go with his father on trips away drawing landscapes as a child.^[1] However, most of his childhood was spent confined to a bath chair due to a suspected heart condition.^[1] The early death of his father also resulted in Sorrell's being very reclusive.^[1]

Early career

Sorrell trained at the Southend municipal school of art and, after a brief spell as a commercial artist in London, he attended the Royal College of Art between 1924 and 1927.^[1] Whilst there, he met William Rothenstein who would act as a mentor for Sorrell and became a close friend.^[1] In 1928, Sorrell won the British Prix de Rome in Mural painting and spent the next three years at the British School at Rome.^[1]

Sorrell returned to England in 1931 and became drawing master at the Royal College of Art where his contemporaries included Gilbert Spencer.^[1] He began his archaeological reconstruction drawings after a chance meeting in 1936 with Kathleen Kenyon on a dig of a Roman site in Leicester, who asked him to produce illustrations for her article for The Illustrated London News. More commissions then followed at Maiden Castle, in collaboration with Mortimer Wheeler, and at Roman Caerwent and Carleon, in collaboration with Cyril Fox and V. E. Nash-Williams of the National Museum of Wales.^[2]

World War Two

During World War II, Sorrell worked in the Royal Air Force in 1940, and then was transferred to the Air Ministry in 1941, applying his artistic talents to help camouflage aerodromes.^{[1] [3]} For a time he worked in the high security Central Intelligence unit at RAF Medmenham, where he was part of a team working on terrain models for bombing missions, and on models of battleships, such as the German battleship .^[4] Sorrell later claimed that he had refused to work on terrain models of cities he thought were of "irreplaceable artistic importance".^[5] He created artworks of air force life in his spare time as well as completing several short-term commissions from the War Artists' Advisory Committee, WAAC, to depict airfields and runway construction. In total WAAC acquired some 26 paintings from Sorrell.^[5]

Post-war career in archaeology

After the war Sorrell's archaeological work was to take up more and more of his time. Commissions came from archaeologists such as Professor W. F. Grimes for the London Mithraeum dig, from The Illustrated London News and later from the Ministry of Works.^[6] Public awareness of his work was increased by his prolific output and his many publications, starting with 'Roman Britain' (1961), as well drawings commissioned for TV series such as Who Were the British? for Anglia TV. Professor Barry Cunliffe wrote:

Throughout this post-war period, Sorrell still found time for his more imaginative work, which was exhibited at both the Royal Watercolour Society and the Royal Academy plus other venues. The titles were often evocative, such as The Fallen Emperors, The Stone Men and The Dark Tower. A strong characteristic of these paintings is, according to Sorrell, "a sense of the decay of a noble past, and this and their treatment, in its starkness and drama, links them inevitably with his archaeological drawings".

Family life

Sorrell was married twice, first to Irene Agnes Mary Oldershaw in 1932; they divorced in 1946. His second marriage was to the watercolour artist Elizabeth Sorrell née Tanner in 1947. They lived and raised their family in a small converted chapel in Daws Heath in southeast Essex. They had three children, Richard Sorrell (born 1948), an artist, Mark Sorrell (born 1952), a writer, and Julia Sorrell (born 1955), also an artist.

As an active member of the Campaign to Protect Rural England, Sorrell worked to help preserve ancient trees and woodlands in his local area.^[7] This was indicative of his Neo-Romantic outlook which was reflected in works such as The Spoilers, The Planting of the trees,^[8] and The Assault which was left unfinished on his easel at the time of his death.^[9]

He died in 1974, and is buried in Sutton cemetery, Southend-on-Sea, with his wife Elizabeth, who died in 1991.

Collections and galleries

• Imperial War Museum^[10] (13 works)
• Liss Fine Art^[11]
• London Transport Museum^[12] (3 works)
• Museum of London^[13] (13 works)
• Sir John Soane's Museum^[14] (Exhibition 2013–2014)
• Tate Gallery^[15] (2 works)
• English Heritage (40 works)
• National Museum Cardiff^{[16] [17]}
• Government Art Collection^[18] (3 works)
• Arts Council Collection^[19]
• Cadw^[20]
• Historic Scotland^[21]
• Manchester Art Gallery (two works)
• Verulanium Museum^[22]
• Royal Air Force Museum London (3 works)
• Beecroft Art Gallery^[23] (70+ works inc. Nubia collection)
• Magdelen College, Oxford^[24] (two works inc. portrait of C S Lewis)
• Royal Academy of Music^[25] (1 work)
• Museum of Reading^[26]
• Dorset Museum^[27] (1 work)
• British Museum
• Portsmouth Museum
• Corporation of London^[28]
• British Postal Museum and Archive (1 work)
• Graves Art Gallery, Sheffield (2 works)
• Bradford Art Galleries (1 Work)
• Tyne & Wear Museums and Archive (1 work)^[29]
• Norwich Castle Museum (2 work)^[30]
• Colchester Castle Museum (3 works)
• Chelmsford Museum and Art Gallery
• South Mill Arts Bishop's Stortford Museum^[31]
• Wearing Art Gallery (1 work)
• Stoke Museum Service (1 work)
• Tullie House Museum & Art Gallery Carlisle
• Royal Cornwall Museum Truro (2 works)
• The National Maritime Museum (1 work)
• The Mitchell J Wolfson Museum of Decorative & Propaganda Art, Miami (1 work)
• Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum Glasgow (1 work)
• Salisbury and South Wiltshire Museum (3 works)
• National Trust for Places of Historic Interest or Natural Beauty^[32]

Publications

• Latinum A reader for the first stage of Latin by C.B. Robinson with illustrations by Alan Sorrell, Cambridge at the University Press, 1940
• Roman Britain text by Aileen Fox, drawings by Alan Sorrell, Lutterworth Press, London 1961
• Saxon England text by John Hamilton, drawings by Alan Sorrell, Lutterworth Press, London 1964
• Living History, text and drawings by Alan Sorrell, B T Batsfords Ltd, London 1965
• Norman Britain text by H. R. Loyn, drawings by Alan Sorrell, Lutterworth Press, London 1966
• Prehistoric Britain text by Barbara Green, drawings by Alan Sorrell, Lutterworth Press, London 1968
• The Holy Bible, Revised Standard Version Colour illustrations by Alan Sorrell, William Collins & Sons, London 1968
• Imperial Rome, by Anthony Birley and Alan Sorrell, Lutterworth Press, London 1970
• Stories from Livy by R.M. Ogilvie, original drawings and maps by Alan Sorrell, Oxford University Press, 1970
• Nubia: A Drowning Land text by Margaret S. Drower, paintings by Alan Sorrell, Longmans, London & Harlow, 1970.
• British Castles text and illustrations by Alan Sorrell, B T Batsford Ltd, London 1973
• Roman Towns in Britain text and illustrations by Alan Sorrell, foreword by Dr Graham Webster, B T Batsford Ltd, London 1976
• Medieval Britain Drawing by Alan Sorrell & Richard Sorrell, Lutterworth Press, London 1978
• Alan Sorrell: Ail-greu'r Gorffenol (1980. National Museum of Wales)
• Reconstructing the Past by Alan Sorrell, edited by Mark Sorrell, Batsfords, 1981,

External links

• • Official website (maintained by his family)
• University of Southampton: Alan Sorrell Project

Notes and References

1. Sorrell, Mark,Sorrell, Alan Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, accessed 11 December 2011
2. Alan Sorrell: The Man who created Roman Britain; The Alan Sorrell Archive . Sorrell, Julia . Perry, Sara . Johnson, Matthew . British Archaeology . November–December 2012 . 22–27.
3. Web site: C A M O U P E D I A. camoupedia.blogspot.co.uk. 29 May 2012.
4. Alastair W. Pearson: Cartographic and Geographical Information Science Vol.29, No 3, 2002, pp. 227–241
5. Book: Sacha Llewellyn & Paul Liss. Liss Llewellyn Fine Art. 2016. WWII War Pictures by British Artists. 978-0-9930884-2-1.
6. "Hysteria Gloom and Foreboading" by Mke Pitts in British Archaeology July/August 2005 No 83
7. "An Artist's memories of a living wood" by Julia Sorrell, Living Woods No 20, Jan/Feb 2012 pp 20–21,
8. http://frontpage.woodland-trust.org.uk/ancient-tree-forum/atfgallery/galleryartists/juliasorrell/julia.htm Woodland Trust: Julia Sorrell
9. Web site: An Appreciation of Trees by Julia Sorrell. saveourwoods.co.uk.
10. http://www.iwm.org.uk/collections/search?query=alan%20sorrell Imperial War Museum: Alan Sorrell
11. http://www.alansorrell.com/index.htm Liss Fine Art: Works by Alan Sorrell
12. http://www.ltmcollection.org/posters/artist/artist.html?IXartist=Alan+Sorrell London Transport Museum: Artist – Alan Sorrell
13. http://www.museumoflondonprints.com/search/keywords/alan%20sorrell Museum of London: Alan Sorrell
14. http://www.soane.org/exhibitions/alan_sorrell Sir John Soane's Museum: Alan Sorrell Exhibition 25 October 2013 – 25 January 2014
15. http://www.tate.org.uk/art/artists/alan-sorrell-1964 Tate Gallery: Alan Sorrell
16. Web site: Search - National Museum Wales. National Museum Wales.
17. https://www.flickr.com/photos/museumwales/3653239793/
18. Web site: Government Art Collection - Artists. Government Art Collection. culture.gov.uk. 8 January 2013. https://web.archive.org/web/20120404200537/http://www.gac.culture.gov.uk/artist.aspx?id=117741. 4 April 2012. dead. dmy-all.
19. Web site: Redirect: Artists. https://www.webarchive.org.uk/wayback/archive/20130417000850/http://www.artscouncilcollection.org.uk/loadWork.do?id%3D15549%26fontSize%3Dregular. dead. artscouncilcollection.org.uk. 17 April 2013.
20. "Alan Sorrell: Early Wales Re-created" National Museum of Wales, Cardiff 1980
21. British Castles text and illustrations by Alan Sorrell, B T Batsford Ltd, London 1973
22. https://archive.today/20130423223405/http://www.stalbansmuseums.org.uk/content/view/full/14438 St Albans Museums
23. Web site: BBC - Your Paintings - Abu Simbel, Nubia. bbc.co.uk. 11 February 2018. dmy-all.
24. Web site: Your Paintings - Paintings. bbc.co.uk.
25. Web site: Blank . www.alansorrell.ukartists.com . 22 May 2022 . https://archive.today/20130216235611/http://www.alansorrell.ukartists.com/index_files/Page537.htm . 16 February 2013 . dead.
26. http://www.readingmuseum.org.uk/collections/archaeology/silchester Reading Museum: Silchester
27. https://archive.today/20130216235611/http://www.alansorrell.ukartists.com/index_files/Page537.htm Alan Sorrell Alan Sorrell
28. Web site: Your Paintings - Alan Sorrell paintings. bbc.co.uk. 11 February 2018. dmy-all.
29. Web site: Tyne & Wear Museums - Art online. twmuseums.org.uk. 1 February 2013. https://web.archive.org/web/20150501092957/http://www.twmuseums.org.uk/artonline/search/quickres.php?searchterms=Sorrell+&within=all. 1 May 2015. dead. dmy-all.
30. https://archive.today/20130423191845/http://www.culturalmodes.norfolk.gov.uk/projects/nmaspub5.asp?page=item&itemId=NWHCM Castle Museum, Norwich
31. The Illustrated London News, 18 July 1953
32. Web site: Bramber Castle, West Sussex 1246611.