Original Screen Print 'Abstract 2' by Toby Horne Shepherd (1909-1993)

Toby Horne Shepherd (1909-1993) was born in Dundee, he attended the Dundee School of Art from 1924-1926 and then Glasgow School of Art where, in 1927, he won a travelling scholarship and prizes for portrait and landscape. In 1929 he took the Painting Diploma, winning a post-diploma scholarship, and became Assistant Art Teacher at Glasgow School of Art 1930-1932. A series of portrait commissions brought him down to London in 1933, and he subsequently referred to these years as the most unsatisfactory period of his artistic life. He became a lecturer at Shoreditch Training College from 1937 until he joined the National Fire Service in 1941. In 1943 he was drafted by the Ministry of Labour, returning to Shoreditch in 1945 to resume his duties. He was appointed Senior Art Lecturer in 1947 and remained at Shoreditch until 1954. Thereafter he had a number of part-time teaching posts, including Ealing School of Art, St Martin’s School of Art and the Sir John Cass School of Art, retiring in 1974. He was also happy to be a student himself in later life, attending sculpture classes for some years; his stone and marble carvings display his superb feeling for form. He was an exceptionally fine figure draughtsman, and this is apparent even in his more abstract and adventurous work. He also enjoyed still-life subjects and there are many examples of these in virtually every medium, including lithographs, screen-prints and monoprints etc.