WILLIAM WARE (b. 1915)

'LONDON ROOFTOPS'

Oil on canvas

Signed

Landscape painter and restorer, born in London

After falling from a ladder aged three when he broke his back, William was confined to various hospitals until the age of 16, when he was cured, but at the age of nine he decided to become a painter. He studied at Putney School of Art, gaining a scholarship that took him to Richmond Art School, 1932-37, under Patrick Millard and Albert Houthuesen. He was married in 1939 to the artist Eileen Aldridge, and their son was the painter Martin Ware.

In 1940 his first war painting of the London Blitz was purchased by the Imperial War Museum, and a number of others are held in their permanent collection. His first London gallery exhibition was in 1940 at J. Leger & Son, exhibiting alongside Augustus John, Sickert, Modigliani, John Piper and Duncan Grant. He set up his own studio and gallery in London at 226, Fulham Road, and gained a reputation as a restorer, doing work for national galleries and museums.

In 1955, Ware was appointed Art Advisor to The Greek Shipping Line and held a solo exhibition on the maiden voyage of "T. S. S. Olympia." He completed murals on their ships "Olympia" and "Arcadia." In 1965, he opened the William Ware Gallery at 160 Fulham Road, replacing it with one at 25 Sloane Street, 1970-75. In 1978 he moved to Burwash, East Sussex, and had a solo exhibition at the Towner Art Gallery, Eastbourne, which included his commissioned painting "The Enthronement of the Archbishop of Canterbury" (Dr Donald Coggan), now at King's School. In 1966 the Campden Town Group had a mixed exhibition of works by William Ware, Sickert, Lucien Pissarro and other artists.

Between 1942 and 1983 William exhibited widely, though less frequently in the latter years. Venues included The New English Art Club, Royal Academy, Royal Portrait Society, Royal West of England Academy, Hayworth Gallery in Accrington, Ogle Gallery in Cheltenham, and the Upper Grosvenor Galleries and Christopher Hull Galleries in London. In 1986 he was part of an exhibition at the Barbican Art Gallery - Artists Painting between 1935 - 1955, and in 1994 he was represented at two separate exhibitions of war paintings at the Pompidou Centre in Paris and at Barcelona.

Museums: Imperial War Museum, London Permanent Collection at the National Gallery, London

Source: Buckman: Dictionary of Artists in Britain since 1945

32 ½" x 35" / 103cm x 89cm

Stock no. MB-MG 547