William Coldstream
The gallery regularly handles, acquires and advises on works by William Coldstream. For more information or the availability of work, please contact the gallery.
William Coldstream (1908 - 1987)
William Coldstream was born in 1908 in Northumberland, the youngest child of Dr George Coldstream and his wife Lilian. After being home tutored and failing examinations to study medicine at university, he enrolled at the Slade School of Fine Art from 1926 until 1929. Studying under Henry Tonks and Philip Wilson Steer, and alongside Victor Pasmore, he was influenced by C.zanne, Matisse, Degas, Sickert and Grant. In 1934 he joined the G.P.O. (General Post Office) Film Unit making documentaries, returning to full-time painting in 1937. That same year he founded with Claude Rogers, Victor Pasmore and, unofficially, Graham Bell, the Euston Road School, which become a seminal influence upon figurative painting. The school dissolved upon the outbreak of WWII during which Coldstream served first as a Camouflage Officer and then as an Official War Artist, working as a portraitist in the Middle East.
After travelling through Italy at the end of the war, Coldstream joined the teaching staff at Camberwell and, in 1949, was appointed Slade Professor of Fine Art. Coldstream brought to the teaching staff of the Slade Claude Rogers, Rudolph Wittkower, Ernst Gombrich, Lucian Freud, Michael Andrews, Frank Auerbach, Ceri Richards, Reg Butler, Phillip King, Patrick George and Euan Uglow. He was Vice-Chairman of the Arts Council, a Director of the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, Chairman of the British Film Institute, a Trustee of the National Gallery and the Tate Gallery, delivered two ‘Coldstream Reports’ in 1960 and 1970 on art school education reform, and was awarded a CBE in 1952 and a knighthood in 1956. Coldstream had exhibitions at the South London Art Gallery, Camberwell, in 1962, organised by the Arts Council, which toured the UK, at Anthony d’Offay in 1976 and 1984, and a retrospective at the Tate in 1990. His work is held in national and international public and private collections. Coldstream had unparalleled influence upon generations of artists as a figurehead of arts education but also as an artist in his own right, transforming the scope of figurative painting in post-war Britain. He died in 1987.
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British Art Fair
Saatchi Gallery 3 - 6 Oct 2019 Art FairPiano Nobile exhibited at the British Art Fair in 2019. Following the fair's great success in 2018, it was held at the Saatchi Gallery for a second year running. The...Read more -
Masterpiece
Royal Hospital Chelsea 27 Jun - 3 Jul 2019Piano Nobile returned to Masterpiece, London's leading art and antiques fair in 2019 . Highlights from the gallery's stand included work by Lucian Freud, Leon Kossoff, and Michael Andrews. There...Read more -
British Art Fair
Saatchi Gallery 20 - 23 Sep 2018 Art FairPiano Nobile presented a selection of Post-War and Modern British art, including works by Craigie Aitchison, Kenneth Armitage, David Bomberg, Peter Coker, William Crozier, Leslie Marr, Leon Kossoff, Paul Nash,...Read more -
William Coldstream | Euan Uglow
Daisies and Nudes 22 Nov 2016 - 28 Jan 2017 Piano NobileWilliam Coldstream | Euan Uglow: Daisies and Nudes presents paintings and drawings by William Coldstream (1908-1987) and Euan Uglow (1932-2000), the first exhibition dedicated to a unique relationship at the heart of post-war figurative painting in Britain.Read more
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Piano Nobile in The Daily Telegraph
Colin Gleadell January 24, 2017Colin Gleadell has included Piano Nobile his weekly art market report for The Daily Telegraph newspaper. The article focused on the activity at the London...Read more -
Willam Coldstream | Euan Uglow: Daisies And Nudes In World Of Interiors
Diary December 12, 2016William Coldstream | Euan Uglow: Daisies and Nudes has been chosen as a London exhibitions highlight in the January 2017 issue of World of Interiors...Read more -
Country Life features William Coldstream | Euan Uglow: Daisies and Nudes
Huon Mallalieu December 7, 2016Piano Nobile exhibition William Coldstream | Euan Uglow: Daisies and Nudes was chosen by Country Life's chief Art Market correspondent, Huon Mallalieu, to feature in...Read more -
Rebecca Wallersteiner reviews William Coldstream | Euan Uglow: Daisies and Nudes
Notting Hill & Holland Park and Kensington & Chelsea magazines December 5, 2016William Coldstream | Euan Uglow: Daisies and Nudes has been included in Rebecca Wallersteiner's arts round-up in local magazines, Notting Hill & Holland Park, and...Read more -
William Coldstream | Euan Uglow: Daisies and Nudes reviewed by Jackie Wullschlager
The Financial Times November 21, 2016The Financial Times chief art critic, Jackie Wullschlager, has included Piano Nobile in her acclaimed round-up of visual arts events for the newspaper's weekend edition....Read more