Vincent Evans (artist) explained

Vincent Evans
Birth Date:1896
Birth Place:Ystalyfera, Wales
Death Place:Slough, Berkshire
Nationality:British
Field:Painting and illustrations

Vincent Evans (1896–1976) was a Welsh artist who had a varied career as a painter, printmaker and art teacher and is known for his depictions of mine workers.[1]

Biography

Evans was born in Ystalyfera in the Swansea Valley in South Wales. Evans was born into a large family of seven children and from the age of thirteen worked as a coal miner.[2] In 1911 he began taking part-time classes at the Swansea School of Art and in 1912 some of his drawings were printed in the Cambria Daily Leader.[3] After ten years working in local pits, Evans attended Swansea School of Art. By 1919 Evans had had a picture exhibited at the Royal Academy and his painting Toilers Underground had been bought by the Miners' Federation of Great Britain for £60.[4] In 1920 he won a scholarship to the Royal College of Art, RCA, where he studied under William Rothenstein and Frank Short until 1922.[1] [5] After graduating from the RCA, Evans undertook a variety of commissions in Britain and overseas. Between 1924 and 1933, he worked as the Art Director at the Wanganui Technical College in New Zealand.[6] This led to Evans representing that country in the art contest at the 1928 Olympics in Amsterdam.[7] After he returned from New Zealand, Evans resumed painting scenes in the South Wales coalfields and throughout the 1930s produced a substantial body of work there. In 1936 he had two large pieces showing underground workers shown at the Royal Academy.[3] In the mid-1930s he began work on his largest picture, A Welsh Family Idyll which he regarded as a statement of Welsh national values and a tribute to his home village.[3]

During World War II, Evans had a number of works, depicting miners working underground, accepted by the War Artists' Advisory Committee.[8] Before the War, in 1935, Evans had also completed a similar commission for the South Wales branch of the Miners Federation.[6] From 1940, he taught at Slough Grammar School and eventually became the art master there. Evans held that post until 1968 and then, after further time abroad, taught at Slough College until 1968.[1] Evans also worked as chief examiner for the London University Examination Board and the Central Welsh Examination Board.[2]

Evans was a fine portrait painter, was a member of the Royal Society of Portrait Painters and exhibited nineteen times at the Royal Academy, first showing there while still a student at the RCA and mostly showing mining subjects.[6] [9] He also exhibited at the New English Art Club, the Leicester Galleries and at the Paris Salon.[1]

Notes and References

  1. Book: David Buckman. Art Dictionaries Ltd. 1998. Artists in Britain Since 1945 Vol 1, A to L . 0-95326-095-X.
  2. Book: Kirstine Brander Dunthorne. Welsh Academic Press. 2003. Drawn from Wales: a School of Art in Swansea 1853-2003. 1860570925.
  3. Book: Peter Lord. Peter Lord (art historian). Parthian. 2006. The Tradition A New History of Welsh Art 1400-1990 . 978-1-910409-62-6.
  4. Miners' Federation of Great Britain Executive Committee minutes, 23 September 1919.
  5. Web site: The Lost Story of Vincent Evans . 2 April 2012. 17 May 2016.
  6. Book: Peter W Jones & Isabel Hitchman. Gomer Press. 2015. Post War to Post Modern: A Dictionary of Artists in Wales . 978-184851-8766.
  7. Web site: Miner Artist . 19 April 2012. 17 May 2016.
  8. Web site: Imperial War Museum. War artists archive: Vincent Evans . 17 May 2016. Imperial War Museum.
  9. Web site: Dai George. The Big Picture:Vincent Evans . 7 February 2016. 17 May 2016. Plas Glyn-Y-Weddw.