George Large
ARTIST: George Large R.I. (1936-) British
TITLE: “Beachcombers”
SIGNED: lower right
MEDIUM: watercolour on paper
SIZE: 78cm x 61cm inc frame
CONDITION: excellent
PRICE: £sold
DETAIL:Painter in watercolour and oil and teacher, born in London. He studied at Hornsey College of Art, 1958–63, teachers including Maurice de Sausmarez, John Titchell and Alfred Daniels. Large spent some time in the display department of Simpson’s, Piccadilly, was part-time at Hornsey College of Art, then head of department at St Julian Comprehensive School in St Albans. Large showed 1963–87 with SWE, being vice-president in 1972 and treasurer in 1984; with RE, 1963–5; with RI from 1983, becoming a member in 1986 and its archivist; and was also made a member of the RBA in 1997. Large was winner of the Winsor & Newton Award, 1989; he won the Llewellyn Alexander and St Cuthbert’s Mill Awards in 1999; and the Arts Club Award in 2003. He had a solo show at Mall Galleries in 1980, later one-man exhibitions including Duncan Campbell Fine Art from 1990.
In 2000, Goldmark Gallery, Uppingham, showed Large’s work, at the same time releasing its documentary film on him, Trust Me I’m An Artist. There was another Goldmark George Large exhibition in 2003. Edward Burra and Stanley Spencer were the main influences on Large’s work, which always had people as its theme, at work or leisure, linked to their surroundings. It was an easily recognisable, colourful form of Cubism. He completed a mural for British Rail for the King’s Cross Thameslink Station. Large had a house in Malta, as well as Woburn, Buckinghamshire, and his work is held by National Gallery and British Consulate in Malta.
