Christopher Richard Wynne Nevinson (1889-1946)

 

English painter, born in Hampstead, C R W Nevinson studied at the St John's Wood School of Art (1907-08) and the Slade School of Art (1909-12). His early paintings were mildly Impressionist. However, exposure to the Italian Futurists strongly influenced his work.

 

In March 1912, Nevinson attended a Futurist exhibition at London's Sackville Gallery. He met Gino Severini and returned with him to Paris. Nevinson studied at the Acadmie Julian, sharing a studio with Amedeo Modigliani, and worked at the Cercle Russe. However, the First World War permanently changed Nevinson's approach.

 

A pacifist, Nevinson served with the Red Cross in France in 1914. He later joined the Royal Army Medical Corps in London. Nevinson was invalided out of the army after contracting rheumatic fever in 1916. While recuperating, he painted a series of images based on his experiences in France.

 

By 1919, Nevinson declared that he had given up Futurism. He adopted a more traditional vision, which combined an enduring love of the movement's angular forms with a new respect for real-life observation.

 

Nevinson's post-war subjects included English landscapes and dynamic cityscapes of Paris and New York. He worked in various styles, refusing to become part of any particular movement.