KEN HOWARD OBE RA
London 1932 - 2022 Cornwall
Ref: CD 207
Dora, winter light
Signed lower right: Ken Howard
Oil on canvas: 48 x 40 in / 121.9 x 101.6 cm
Frame size: 55 ½ x 47 ½ in / 141 x 120.6 cm
Painted circa 2000
Provenance: Manya Igel Fine Arts, London Private collection, New South Wales Exhibited: London, Royal Academy of Arts, Summer Exhibition, 29th May-7th August 2000, no.1044
‘If I had to paint one subject all my life it would be my studio at Oriel. Every year each season is different. So is every week, day, hour, even each minute. It never repeats itself or bores me – it is continually fascinating.’[1]
Ken Howard’s London studio at South Bolton Gardens was originally owned by the Edwardian artist Sir William Orpen (1878-1931), who named it Oriel after the house in which he was born. Ken purchased the neighbouring property and restored the space, which he wrote was, ‘perpetually bathed in a cool north light, ideal for a figure painter who needs a consistent even light. The sun enters the room only late on summer evenings, in contrast to the brilliant, almost Mediterranean light that floods St Clement’s Studio in Cornwall.’[2]
Biographical chronology
1932
Ken Howard born in London
1949-1953
Studied at the Hornsey School of Art
1952
First exhibited at the Royal Academy
1953-55
National Service in the Royal Marines
1955-58
Studied at the Royal College of Art
1958-59
British Council Scholarship to Florence
1959
First exhibited at the New English Art Club
First exhibited at 147 New Bond Street
1962
Elected member of the New English Art Club
1966
Elected member of the Royal Institute of Oil Painters
First prize Lord Mayor’s Art Award
1969
First prize Arundel Art Centre
1973
Appointed official artist in Ireland by the Imperial War Museum
1978
Prize winner John Moores Exhibition
1979
Elected member of the Royal Society of Painters in Watercolours
Prize winner John Laing Exhibition
1981
Elected member of the Royal West of England Academy
1982
First prize Hunting Group Awards
1983
Associate Member of the Royal Academy
Prize winner Royal West of England Academy
1985
Critics’ prize, Sparkasse Karlsruhe
1986
Prize winner New English Art Club Centenary Exhibition
1988
Honorary Member of the Royal Society of British Artists
Honorary Member of the Royal Institute of Oil Painters
1991
Member of the Royal Academy
1998
President of the New English Art Club
2001
Critics’ prize New English Art Club 2001
2004
Elected Royal Academy Professor of Perspective
2006
Elected fellow of the Royal Institute of Oil Painters
2007
Appointed Freeman of the City of London, Liveryman Painter Stainers
2008
Honorary Member of the Society of Graphic Fine Art
2010
Awarded OBE for services to Art in the Queen’s Birthday Honours
2011
Publication of Light and Dark: The Autobiography of Ken Howard RA
2013
Publication of Ken Howard’s Switzerland: In the Footsteps of Turner
Commissions include:
The Drapers Company
The Haberdashers Company
States of Jersey
HQ British Army of the Rhine
United Nations Forces in Cyprus
The Stock Exchange, London
Lloyds of London
The Royal Hospital, Chelsea
Banque Paribas
Works by Ken Howard can be seen in the following public collections:
Royal Academy of Arts, London
Plymouth City Art Gallery
Sheffield Art Gallery
Hove Museum and Art Gallery
Guildhall Art Gallery, London
Ulster Museum and Art Gallery
The Imperial War Museum, London
The National Army Museum, London
One Man Exhibitions
1955
Plymouth Art Centre
1966
John Whibley Gallery, London
1968
John Whibley Gallery, London
1971
New Grafton Gallery, London
1972
Plymouth Art Gallery – Retrospective Exhibition
1974
New Grafton Gallery, London
1976
New Grafton Gallery, London
1978
New Grafton Gallery, London
1979
New Metropole, Folkestone
Hong Kong Art Centre
St Helier Gallery
1980
St Helier Gallery
1981
New Grafton Gallery, London
1982
Nicosia
1983
Delhi 1983
1984
New Grafton Gallery, London
St Helier Gallery
1985
New Grafton Gallery, London
1986
Linton Court Gallery
1987
Lowndes Lodge Gallery, London
New Grafton Gallery, London
1989
Lowndes Lodge Gallery, London
1990
New Grafton Gallery, London
Lowndes Lodge Gallery, London
1991
Lowndes Lodge Gallery, London
Brian Sinfield Gallery, Gloucestershire
1992
Lowndes Lodge Gallery, London
1993
New Grafton Gallery, London
Brian Sinfield Gallery, Gloucestershire
1995
New Grafton Gallery, London
Brian Sinfield Gallery, Gloucestershire
1997
New Grafton Gallery, London
1998
The Everard Read, Johannesburg
2000
New Grafton Gallery, London
The Everard Read Gallery, Cape Town
2002
Richard Green, London
2003
Richard Green, London
2004
Richard Green, London
2005
Richard Green, London
2006
Richard Green, London
2007
Richard Green, London
2009
Richard Green, London
2011
Richard Green, London
2013
Richard Green, London
2015
Richard Green, London
2016
Richard Green, London
2017 Richard Green, London
[1] Ken Howard, Light and Dark: The Autobiography of Ken Howard, Royal Academy Publications, London 2011, p.260.
[2] Ken Howard with Sally Bulgin, Inspired by Light: A Personal View, David & Charles, Devon 1998 (reprinted 2008), p.114.
