John Craxton
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John Craxton RA, born London 3 October 1922 (or 1918 - sources differ), is an English neo-Romantic painter.
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[edit] Biography
[edit] Early years
The son of the composer and musician Harold Craxton, John began to paint at around age nine at Betteshanger School and - taught by the inspired art teacher Elsie Barling - had exhibited in the Bloomsbury Gallery at age ten.
[edit] Career
He applied for Chelsea School of Art but was considered to be too young to attend nude life classes. He studied instead at the Académie de la Grande Chaumière in Paris during 1939, until the outbreak of war meant he had to complete his studies in London, at Westminster School of Art and the Central School of Art. Between 1941 and 1942, having been rejected for military service, he attended Goldsmiths College, then toured the wilds of Pembrokeshire with Graham Sutherland in 1943. His first solo exhibition was in London in 1942 at the Swiss Cottage Café, and his first major solo show at the Leicester Galleries in 1944. His work was part of the neo-romantic revival, and his early pre-1945 work shows the influence of Samuel Palmer and Graham Sutherland, and he was also heavily influenced by friend and patron Peter Watson.
After the war he travelled to the Isles of Scilly, Switzerland, Istanbul, Spain, Italy, but mainly Greece and Crete, from 1946-1966. He moved permanently to Crete from about 1970, and he now switches between living in Crete and in London. The writer Richard Olney remembered Craxton in Paris, en-route to Greece during the summer of 1951:
- "Most nights, John Craxton, a young English painter, arrived to share my bed; we kept each other warm. He moved in a bucolic dreamworld, peopled with beautiful Greek goat herders. Soon he left for Greece."
In 1951 Craxton was a ballet designer for the Royal Ballet's production of Daphnis and Chloë, at a time when ballet stage design provided a haven for the neo-Romantic arts. He was able to use his first-hand experience of Greece to inform his ballet designs.
He had numerous shows of his paintings in both England and Greece. A major retrospective show was held at Whitechapel Art Gallery in 1967. His later work became more formal, structured and decorative, although still expressing Romantic pastoral themes.
He produced the scenery and costumes for the Royal Opera House's 1968 production of Igor Stravinsky's Apollo.
His work was also reproduced in magazines such as New Writing, Horizon, and he has illustrated the books of Patrick Leigh Fermor. He produced lithographs for several anthologies edited by Geoffrey Grigson, including Visionary Poems (1944).
His younger brother Harold Antony Craxton (1918-1999) became a leading television producer and outside broadcaster. His sister Janet became a notable oboist.
He was elected Royal Academician in 1993. Craxton lives and works in both Chania, Crete and London.
[edit] Further reading
- John Craxton: Paintings and drawings 1941-1966. Whitechapel Art Gallery, 1967. (20 page exhibition catalogue)
- Paintings, Drawings and Watercolours. Horizon, 1948. (Text by Geoffrey Grigson).
