John Aldridge (artist)

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John Aldridge RA (1905-1983) was an English landscape painter, wallpaper designer and art teacher.

Born in Woolwich, Aldridge grew up in a wealthy military family. After attending Uppingham School he studied ‘Greats’ at Corpus Christi College at Oxford University. He graduated in 1928 and settled in London. After leaving university he taught himself to paint and had his first mixed exhibition in 1931. In 1933 he had his first one man show at the Leicester Galleries in London. The following year he exhibited at the Venice Biennale. During the 1930s he was closely associated with Robert Graves and the group of poets and artists centred around him in Deyá.

In 1933 moved to Place House in Great Bardfield, Essex. At Bardfield Aldridge became a friend of Edward Bawden who was a near neighbour. Both Aldridge and Bawden collaborated in designing ‘Bardfield’ wallpapers during the late 1930s, which were distributed by Cole & Sons.

During the war Aldridge joined the Army and was commissioned into the Intelligence Corp. After leaving the army he returned to landscape painting. He was a plein air painter and his subjects were the Essex countryside and scenes he came across during his many European travels. Another important theme was the depiction of his much-loved garden. Although self taught Aldridge was a skilled draftsmen and an accomplished oil painter.

In the early 1950s several more artists moved to Great Bardfield, making the village a dynamic centre for the visual arts. During the 1950s Aldridge helped in the establishment of the large ‘open house’ summer exhibitions in the village. These well-organised shows attracted thousands of art lovers to the north Essex village. Aldridge and his wife Lucy Aldridge (née Brown) opened Place House to the many visitors attracted to the village by national media reports. In 1955 Aldridge told an Observer newspaper reporter that “people seem to prefer this domestic informality to galleries”. At these shows Aldridge exhibited his oils while Lucy exhibited her hand knitted rugs. Although well received his work seemed the most conservative of the Great Bardfield Artists and perhaps reflected the British art scence of the 1920s and 30s.

From the early 1960s the Bardfield art community fragmented, but Aldridge never abandoned Place House despite the end of his marriage in 1970. After the divorce Aldridge married Gretl Cameron (d.1983). There was a retrospective exhibition of his work at the New Grafton Gallery, London in 1980. His work is in many public collections including: the British Council, Tate Gallery, National Portrait Gallery, Victoria & Albert Museum and the Royal Academy of Arts (who elected him ARA in 1954 and a RA in 1963). The major holding of his work is in the North West Essex Collection of the Fry Art Gallery, Saffron Walden, Essex. The artist has had two exhibitions at the Fry Art Gallery: a show of his oils in 1999, and an exhibition highlighting his drawings and prints in 2000.

References:

John Aldridge, ‘John Aldridge’, Great Bardfield Artists, W. S. Cowell Ltd, c.1957

Martin Salisbury (Ed), Artists of the Fry: Art and Design in the North West Essex Collection, Ruskin Press, Cambridge, 2003.

Ian Tregarthen Jenkin, ‘John Aldridge RA’, Fry Art Gallery, Saffron Walden, 1999

Nevile Wallis, 'Art in a Village’, Observer, 17 July 1955