Richard Eurich OBE RA (d. 1992)

Richard Eurich was born in Bradford, Yorkshire, in 1903; his German born father was a Professor of forensic medicine and bacteriologist, his mother was a Yorkshire Quaker. Richard was educated at St George’s school, Harpenden and Bradford Grammar School. The family moved to Ilkley in 1920 and Richard Eurich studied at Bradford School for Arts and Crafts (1922-24) and the Slade School, London (1924-27).   Richard Eurich’s first solo exhibition was at the Goupil Gallery, Mayfair in 1929 and he represented Great Britain at the Carnegie International Exhibition between 1936 and 1939. From 1940 to 1945 he worked as an Official War Artist to the Admiralty and his wartime paintings were acclaimed for their realism and understatement. On the strength of already considerable achievement he was elected an associate of the Royal Academy in 1942, becoming a Royal Academician in 1953.   Richard Eurich is regarded as one of Britain’s leading figurative artists, in a tradition that runs from Hogarth and Turner, via the Pre-Raphaelites, to his contemporaries. He belonged to a very talented generation of British artists that included Barbara Hepworth, John Piper, Eric Ravilious, Ceri Richards and Graham Sutherland and was regarded as their equal in originality, perceptiveness and the quality of his work.   In 1934 he moved to Dibden Purlieu on Southampton Water with his wife and they settled there permanently; he died in 1992, aged 89 years. Early in life he discovered an affinity for countryside and the sea and much of his work was inspired by the coastal scenery of the South although he continued to paint both landscapes and townscapes of his beloved Yorkshire during annual family visits to family in the North.His work features extensively in galleries and private collections, with the Royal Academy and the Tate Gallery each owning five paintings and significant representation in other major galleries and museums throughout the UK, including the National Maritime Museum and the Imperial War Museum, which staged an exhibition in the final years of his career. The Millais Gallery in Southampton held a major exhibition in 2003 to celebrate the centenary of Richard Eurich’s birth and the Fosse Gallery is honoured to mount this retrospective in 2008.