Norman Basil Town(1915-1987)

Norman Town was a British artist who was became known initially for his paintings of bomb craters during World War II and became a war artist after they were accepted by the War Advisory Committee in 1943.

In the words of W.T. Oliver, an art critic of the time, 'here was an artist of unusual sensibility' and this talent was recognised early on by Ernest Musgrave, director of the Wakefield Art Gallery, who was Town's first private collector and who decided, on his own initiative, to send the bomb crater pictures to the Committee.

Town afterwards studied at the Royal College of Art, Town where he developed approaches to illustrating poetry, including Arthur Rimbaud’s ‘Season in Hell’.

He became great friends with the artist Keith Vaughan and was influenced by his new-romanticism. Town’s work is sometimes mistaken for Vaughan’s. Both claimed to be influenced by Sutherland, Moore, Blake and El Greco.

Town taught graphic des

Picture dimensions = 46.5x32.5cm Frame dimensions = 69x55cm

Lacquered wood