PETER GREENHAM R.A. (1909 –
1992)
“Near Dedham”
Watercolour. 9 7/8” x 13
3/8”. Signed with initials
Exhibited New English Art
Club (Bears original exhibition label) IMAGE
Peter Greenham was a portrait and landscape painter. He was educated at Dulwich College and won a scholarship to
study history at Oxford, although he read English. He studied at Byam Shaw School of Drawing and
Painting under Ernest Jackson from 1935 to 1939 and afterwards became a
schoolmaster in Oxford although he continued to paint. He was the brother of the artist Robert
Duckworth Greenham and was married to the painter Jane Dowling. He was elected Associate of the Royal Academy in 1951 and full Member in
1960. He succeeded Sir Henry Rushbury as
Keeper of the Royal Academy Schools in 1964, retiring in 1985. He was also art critic of The Scotsman”for 2 years. He showed widely in mixed exhibitions and
from 1972 had many solo exhibitions at the New Grafton Gallery. He was a Member of its portrait centre and
among his subjects were Sir Isaiah Berlin, Lord Hailsham, Michael
Ramsay, the former Archbishop of Canterbury and Dr. F.R. Lewis. His paintings are greatly admired by
discriminating collectors and in 1984/85 the Arts Council and Norwich School of
Art put on a touring show of work by him and his wife. Works by Peter Greenham can be seen in the
permanent collections of the National Portrait Gallery and Tate Britain. Dulwich College has his portraits of World
War II VCs in the Lower Hall, Ronald Groves in the Board Room and a seascape in
the Wodehouse library.
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