Sir Roger de Grey PRA
1918 - 1995
Sir Roger de Grey
Sir Roger de Grey (1918–1995) was a British landscape painter. Born in Penn, Buckinghamshire, and a nephew of Camden Town painter Spencer Gore, he studied at Chelsea School of Art in 1936–39 and 1946–47. His first solo exhibition was at Agnew’s in 1954.
De Grey is best known for open-air landscapes refined in the studio, with a clear structure of planes and light. De Grey’s landscapes, near his studio in Kent or house in the Charente Maritime, France, were quiet in colour and orderly in construction. He exhibited widely in London museums and galleries and abroad.
He combined painting with a long teaching career: lecturer at King’s College, Newcastle (1947–51), then Senior Tutor and Reader in Painting at the Royal College of Art (1953–73), and Principal of the City & Guilds of London Art School (1973–95).
Elected ARA in 1962 and RA in 1969, he served as Treasurer of the Royal Academy (1976–84) and President (1984–93), and was knighted in 1991.
His work is held by major collections including Tate; the Royal Academy of Arts; the National Portrait Gallery, London; the Arts Council Collection; and the Government Art Collection.
Available
‘La Tremblade II’
POA
“I get so excited by achieving effects. The world we inherit is such a glittering marvel that occasionally you just achieve… something of the glitter and the play of the way forms work in relation to each other.”