E Maurice Feild, Oil on Board

E Maurice Feild, British (1905-1988), Slade School, small oil on board sketch, The Little Dancer, signed and dated 1942 He began his career at the Downs School in 1928. He was a colleague and friend of W. H. Auden in the early 1930s. In 1937 he was an early supporter of the Euston Road School. He encouraged his pupils to paint with direct sincerity in the open air, and the many English painters who learned from him included Kenneth Rowntree, Lawrence Gowing, Andrew Forge, Patrick George, Anthony Hill, Anthony Fry, and Francis Hoyland. He left the Downs School to join the Slade School in 1954 at the invitation of William Coldstream, who later wrote a tribute to Feild's work as painter and teacher. His work was exhibited at the Upper Grosvenor Gallery in 1970. Lawrence Gowing was reported to have described Feild as "among the unsung influences on British painting" (Roger Berthoud in The Times, 12 June 1982, p. 12).