Painting - Roland Batchelor Oil Painting Titled Contentment 1889 to 1990

Oil painting by ROLAND BATCHELOR (BRITISH, 1889-1990) Titled: Contentment signed R. Batchelor Exhibition label on reverse also visible This rare medium by Roland Batchelor being oil on canvas measures 46 x 36 cm. (18 1/8 x 14 1/8 in.) Currently unframed Roland Batchelor Exhibited at London, National Society, The Royal Institute Galleries Bernard William Roland Batchelor, RWS (1889-1990) Roland Batchelor’s main subjects were focused on ordinary French life and were created with a warmth and focused insight. Many of his works had similarities to French comedies. His works were influenced by two of his favourite painters, Daumier, as well as Toulouse-Lautrec. Roland Batchelor was born in Chelsea on 16 October 1889. He painted from a young age, and established his focused genre after a school trip to France. In Edwardian times he attended painting classes given by Punch artist George Morrow at the Putney School of Art; his comic contributions to the Civil Service Opinion were clearly influenced by Morrow’s teaching. After serving in France and Italy during the First World War, he studied under Harry Watson at the Regent Street Polytechnic; at the same time, he discovered a volume on Rembrandt which helped him to develop his characterful lively style. He also learnt etching from William Palmer Robins at the Central School of Arts and Crafts and made the acquaintance of his most important teacher, Middleton Todd. Batchelor exhibited watercolours at the RA from 1937, and watercolour proved to be his essential medium, fitted to his light subjects (some of which have affinities with the work of Ardizzone). He returned to study under Middleton Todd, at the City and Guilds School. Elected to the Royal Society of Painters in Water-Colours ARWS and RWS, he was the subject of a retrospective at the Bankside Gallery also. For further information on the life and work of Batchelor, please refer to Patricia Jarrett, Roland Batchelor water-colours and drawings