Lawrence Gowing

Who was Lawrence Gowing?

Sir Lawrence Burnet Gowing was an English artist, writer, curator and teacher. Initially recognized as a portrait and landscape painter, he quickly rose to prominence as an art educator, writer, and eventually, curator and museum trustee. As a student of art history he was largely self-taught.

Born in Hackney, East London to Horace Gowing, a draper, and his wife, Louise, his first painting of note, Mare Street, Hackney, made reference to his father's shop. After attending the Downs School at Colwall, Herefordshire and Leighton Park School, in 1938 he enrolled in the Euston Road School, where he studied with William Coldstream. He was a conscientious objector during World War II. In the 1940s he became recognised as a painter, and for the rest of his life was sought after to paint casual but quintessential portraits of the eminent, among whom were Clement Attlee, Lord Halifax, and Edgar Adrian.