JOHN HENRY NORMAN R.O.I. (1896 – 1982)
“The Green Man”
Gouache. Signed with
initials
Provenance - From a folio of
the Artist’s work of 1947 IMAGE
“Structure”
Oil Painting on Linen over
Board. Signed with initial
Provenance - From a folio of
the Artist’s work of 1947 IMAGE
“Autumn Landscape”
Mixed Media. Circa 1947
Provenance - From a folio of
the Artist’s work of 1947 IMAGE
Henry Norman was a painter in oil, born in Nottingham, who settled in Coventry aged 13. He joined the Army in 1915, served in France and gained the Military
Medal in 1917. Norman spent his early years in Coventry at the Rover Works as a
crankshaft balancer, moving to Standard Motor Company for 20 years and
shortly before retirement was a showroom supervisor for Armstrong
Whitworth Aircraft. In World War II he
worked in an ammunition factory. He attended
evening classes under William Henry Milnes at Coventry School of Art from 1919 to 1924. He was a founder of Coventry Art Circle, of which he was Chairman
for many years. From 1934 he was a Member of the
Royal Institute of Oil Painters, also exhibiting at the Royal Academy, Paris Salon, Royal Society
of British Artists, United Society of Artists, Royal Birmingham Society of
Artists and elsewhere in the provinces. Coventry’s Herbert Art Gallery and Museum gave him a solo
show in 1962. Harry Norman first
attracted attention for his romantic landscapes rooted in
the tradition of George Clausen and JMW Turner, but in the middle 1930s he
moved towards greater formal abstraction and freedom, devising his Golden Mean
charts, a series of geometrically constructed radiations and relationship. He urged fellow artists to “guarantee your
relativities”. Herbert Art Gallery holds 7 works by Norman.
BACK
