Julian Trevelyan (1910 - 1988)

 

English painter, printmaker, and engraver; born in Surrey, 1910; was the son of the poet and scholar R C Trevelyan and nephew of the historian Sir George Trevelyan; educated at Trinity College, Cambridge; studied art in Paris under William Hayter, 1930-1934; travelled widely in Europe, including the Balkans; settled in Hammersmith; success came early: 'To dream is to create', he wrote, foreshadowing his eccentric vision of urban skylines, streets, and riverbanks, which led him to the English Surrealist Group; served as a camouflage officer in the Royal Engineers during WW II, 1940-1943; visited Africa and Palestine; like Piper, abandoned Surrealism: 'Bullocks replace boats, seagulls took over from skyscrapers'; what had once been finely executed was replaced by firm didactic paint or an unyielding line; in later years he began making assemblages with marine flotsam, closer to his pre-war style; taught at the Chelsea School of Art from 1949 and the Royal Academy of Art from 1955, after his marriage to the painter, Mary Fedden, in 1951, he travelled extensively in Europe, Africa, India, Russia, and the USA.

 

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