Graham Sutherland (1903 – 1980)

Biography: Born in Epsom and trained at Goldsmith’s, Graham Sutherland OM initially specialized in etching but then turned to painting, designing ceramics and other commercial work. He was an official War Artist, then in 1949 he painted a portrait of the writer Somerset Maugham which proved to be the first of several famous people that he painted. (In 1954 he painted Winston Churchill – subsequently destroyed by his wife because she disliked it so much). He also designed the tapestry for the new Coventry Cathedral in the 1950s. During the last two decades of his life Sutherland had numerous retrospective exhibitions devoted to his work both at home and abroad.