Frank Joseph ARCHER, ARCA, ARE, RE, ARWS, RWS

(1912 - 1995)

Adriatic Harbour Sanbeneto

Oil on canvas

Ssigned & dated 1990

A painter & etcher, Archer was born in Walthamstow, East London, and brought up there during the First World War. Later the family moved to Eastbourne, where he attended Eastbourne School of Art from 1928-32, Brighton School of Art, and then the Royal College of Art, where he won the coveted Rome Scholarship in 1938. His studies in Rome were rudely cut short by the outbreak of war, and he moved into teaching, eventually joining the staff of Kingston College of Art under another distinguished painter/etcher, Wilfred Fairclough. He took over from Fairclough as Head of Fine Art, where he stayed until his retirement in 1973.

Archer joined the Royal Society of Painters-Etchers in 1940, and became first an Associate of the Royal Watercolour Society in 1972 and later a Fellow. His landscapes are full of drama, light and colour, and many exhibit his great love of Italy.

He was however also passionately interested in music, being a lapsed violinist, and a friend of Yehudi Menuhin, as well as knowing many other great musicians. Many feature in his art.

Source: Buckman: Dictionary of Artists in Britain since 1945

31 ½" x 31 ½" / 77 cm x 77 cm

Ref. MB-MG 556