Castlegate House Art Gallery Cumbria - 20th Century British and Contemporary Art Gallery, Lake District

Ceri Allen

Ceri Allen studied Fine Art Painting at City & Guilds School of Art, London. Her tutors included Peter Coker, Carel Weight and Humphrey Ocean. She has produced many commissioned works and is represented in private collec...

Louis Appleby

We first came across Louis in the summer of 2014, at his graduation show at Wimbledon College of Arts. Individual certainly describes Louis’ work, with a depth and complexity that transcends the oft apparent simplicity o...

Alex Appleby

Having just graduated in summer 2021 with a BA in Painting from the final year of Wimbledon College of Arts, Alex is a great example of the resurgence of painting in British contemporary art. Alex's main influences are...

Jake Attree

. Jake Attree was born in York in 1950, studying at York school of Art from 1966 until 1968, then from 1968 to 1971 Jake attended Liverpool College of Art and subsequently attended The Royal Academy, London, from 1974 u...

Frank Auerbach

One of the most internationa'ly lauded of living artists, Frank Auerbach was born in Germany in 1931, however, in 1939 his parents sent him to England to escape the Nazis as part of the Kindertransport Programme. Even at...

Frederick Austin

1902 - 1990, a British painter, etcher and engraver. Frederick studied at Leicester College of Art and subsequently won the Prix de Rome in 1927 for his painting, Flight into Egypt, some five years after his brother Robe...

Michael Ayrton

Michael Ayrton was a British artist and writer born in 1921. He studied at the Heatherley School of Fine Art and the St John's Wood Art School, and later with the Eugène Bergman in Paris. Eriudite and prolific, his outpu...

Francis Bacon

Francis Bacon was one of the dominant figures of British and International post-war art, and his works remain unmistakable for their contorted emotion and visceral physicality. “I would like my pictures to look as if a ...

Bill Bell

William G Bell 1928 - 2006 William (Bill) Bell was born in Barrow-in-Furness, Cumbria, in 1928. Bill spent his working life surrounded by the heavy industry of the Vickers shipyard in Barrow, an environment which clearl...

John Bellany (RA, CBE)

John Bellany was born in Port Seton, a coastal town in East Lothian, Scotland. Born into a fishing family, both his father and paternal grandfather captained fishing boats. Regarded as one of the most notable British ar...

Sarah Jane Bellwood

Sarah Jane Bellwood is an award-winning Lancaster based artist, one with an ability to convey exquisite detail seldom seen through paint. Sarah turns what may appear to be the common-place into studies of intracacy and d...

June Bennett

The sea was very important to June Bennett. Born in Grange over sands, she lived by the sea most of her life. She went to Lancaster and Leicester Colleges of art where she met her husband Michael. For many years she was ...

Michael Bennett

Mike Bennett was born in Windermere, Cumbria in 1934. Studying at Lancaster and Leicester Colleges of Art from 1950-56, he was to meet June, a fellow student during this time, with them marrying in 1959 after Mike conclu...

David Bomberg

One of the most influential British artists at work in the twentieth century, David was born in Birmingham in 1890. Initially studying art in London at the City and Guilds, David Bomberg was to study under the highly re...

John Bratby (RA)

John Bratby RA 1928 - 1992 Born in Wimbledon in 1928, John studied at the Royal College of Art from 1951 to 1954. So well respected was his work there, that within three years he had taken a post as a tutor at the sam...

Alice Campbell

A 2017 graduate of the prestigious Duncan of Jordanstone Art School in Dundee, Alice Campbell embodies all that is great about the true resurgence in British contemporary painting. Inventive, skilled, mature and aestheti...

Sarah Carrington

Graduating in 1999 from Edinburgh University with a sell-out degree show, Sarah Carrington began her artistic career based in Edinburgh. Her work focuses on the Scottish coastline, a passion she has had since childhood ...

Halima Cassell

Halima is an internationally renowned and respected sculptural artist. Brought up in the North West of England, she studied 3-D Design at the University of Central Lancashire before embarking on what has become a hugely ...

Stephen Chambers (RA)

Stephen Chambers is one of the most critically acclaimed and respected artists at work in the UK today. A member of the Royal Academy of Arts, Stephen Chambers studied at Winchester School of Art from 1978 to 1979 and th...

Peter Coker (RA)

Peter Coker was born in London in 1926. Studying initially at St Martin’s School of Art from 1941, Coker moved with his family to Manningtree in Essex in 1962. Whilst continuing to teach at St Martin’s (post-graduation) ...

Eileen Cooper (RA, OBE)

Not only one of only eighty members of the Royal Academy of Arts but also until 2017, the first female Keeper of the Royal Academy in its almost 250 year history, Eileen is one of the foremost names in British contempora...

Norman Cornish

REPRESENTATIVES OF THE ESTATE OF THE LATE NORMAN CORNISH One of the most celebrated of the mining painters of the last century and this, Norman Cornish was born in 1919 in Spennymoor, County Durham. As with most of his ...

Malcolm Croft

A truly emerging talent within the contemporary art scene, Malcolm came to painting through an unusual route. Originaly from Newcastle, raised in Leeds, now living and working in rural France after many years building a...

William Crosbie

William Crosbie was a highly regarded Scottish painter (1915 - 1999), graduate of the Glasgow School of Art with numerous exhibitions including Perth Museum and Art Gallery, Ewan Mundy and The Scottish Gallery ...

Bob Crossley

Born in Cheshire in 1912, Bob Crossley was to spend much of his childhood and formative adult years living in Rochdale, to the north east of Manchester. Leaving school aged 14, Bob trained as a sign writer before enterin...

Alan Davie

1920 - 2014 ...

Harold Dearden

1888 - 1962. Harold Dearden was a painter principally in in oil and watercolour and additionally, a draughtsman in ink and wash. Dearden studied at Rochdale School of Art under H Barrett Carpenter, 1905–10, then at the R...

Ronald Ossory Dunlop (RA)

1894 - 1973 ...

Joan Eardley (RSA)

Joan Eardley was born in Sussex in 1921. A tragic childhood, with her father committing suicide when she was just nine years old, she moved with her Mother and sister, Patricia, to Blackheath, London in 1929. Showing an...

Mary Fedden RA

Mary Fedden OBE, RA, was born in Bristol in 1915, studying art at the famous Slade School of Fine Arts between 1932 and 1936. Mary Fedden became a tutor of painting at the Royal College of Art, teaching David Hockney, am...

Sheila Fell RA FRSA

Born in 1931, Sheila Fell grew up in Aspatria, a typical West Cumbrian mining village. Whilst gaining a place at the Carlisle College of Art at 17, within two years she had obtained a place at St. Martin’s School of Art...

Richard Fitton

Richard Fitton is a Contemporary British Figurative Artist, whose skills include Painting, Drawing, Printmaking and Sculpting. Born in Oldham 1990, Richard gained Professional Recognition in 2012 when he became the young...

Colin Frooms

Colin Frooms 1933 – 2017 Born in London in 1933, Colin originally studied at the Hornsey College of Art, then latterly studying at the Royal Academy of Arts schools from 1957 to 1961, graduating in fine art, painting. ...

Sir Terry Frost (RA)

Sir Terry Frost (RA) 1915 - 2003 To become regarded as one of the most influential of mid to late twentieth British abstract artists, Terry Frost was born in Leamington Spa in 1915. After release from active service upo...

Helen Fryer

Born and brought up in Cumbria, Helen left the county at the age of 18 to study Geography at Manchester University. After years living in and exploring various parts of the UK she has now returned, living and working in...

Frederick Gore (RA)

Gore was born into the world of art; his father, Spencer Frederick Gore, was a painter, President of the Camden Town Group until his early death in March 1914, and his mother, Mary Joanna (Molly) Kerr, was a dancer from ...

Katya Granova

Born in 1988 in what was then still the Soviet Union, Katya was to initially train in Social Psychology at the St Petersburg State University. In a change of direction Katya moved to France to study at the Paris College ...

Duncan Grant

Duncan Grant was born in Aviemore, Scotland in 1885. Educated in England from a very early age, Duncan Grant was to attend Westminster School of Art from 1902, subsequently studying at the Slade School, and also in both ...

Alistair Grant RSA, FRCA

Alistair Grant 1925 – 1997 RBA, RSA, FRCA Born in London in 1925 to mixed French and English parents, Alistair Grant studied painting at the Birmingham College of Art between 1941 and 1943. After serving in Egypt durin...

Alasdair Gray

. Alasdair Gray was born in Glasgow in 1934 into a working-class family, his father a factory worker and his mother working in a clothing warehouse. After years of moving around the country due to the evacuation efforts...

Martin Greenland

Martin Greenland must be regarded as one of the UK’s most respected painters. His works are held internationally and in 2006 Martin achieved critical acclaim when winning the John Moores Painting Prize in its 24th year, ...

Alex Hain

Discovered in his shared studio in Selkirk, on the Scottish Borders, Alex is a young artist and the latest in a line of family members who have all become professional artists. Painting from the heart, and gut, painting ...

Edgar Hereford

Edgar Lionel Hereford (1886 - 1953) was born in Inverkip, Gourock, Renfrewshire. Hereford formed part of an important small circle of artists that existed around Charles Rennie Macintosh following the Scottish artists's ...

Josef Herman (RA)

Mosek Josek Herman (Josef) was born in Warsaw into a Jewish family in January 1911. His childhood was one of adject poverty and, at the age of 13 he initially trained to be a typesetter, however by 1930 attended the Wars...

Patrick Heron

One of the most respected and influential of British artists of the twentieth century, Patrick Heron was born in Leeds in 1920 but spent much of his life in London and then Cornwall, where many of his most influential wo...

Roger Hilton

To become one of the most influential British artists of his generation, Roger Hilton was born in Middlesex in 1911. Studying at the Slade under Henry Tonks, Roger went on to study in Paris before in his immediate post-w...

Ivon Hitchens

Ivon Hitchens embarked on his professional artistic career in the 1920’s after studying and graduating from St John Wood School of Arts and the Royal Academy schools in London. Involved with the avant-garde movement in ...

David Hochhauser

Our usual route to spotting art-talent is when on our travels or visiting art school graduation shows. The other route is where artists approach us; this occurs on average four or five times each week, with artists looki...

David Hockney RA

David Hockney 1937 David Hockney was born in Bradford, West Yorkshire, in 1937. After attending the Bradford College of Art, he obtained a place at the Royal College of Art, London, in 1959, where he was tutored by both...

Ken Howard RA

Ken Howard OBE, RA, was born in England in 1932. He has become one of the most celebrated and respected artists at work today in the UK. Ken Howard studied at the Royal College of Art from 1955 to 1958, and first exhibit...

John Hoyland (RA)

John Hoyland was born in England in 1934 and was educated in art from an early age. After graduating from the Sheffield School of Art and Crafts and then moving to the Sheffield College of Art and the RA Schools in Lond...

Edward Hughes

Born in Wallasey in 1953, Edward was to become one of the most talented of UK studio potters. Studying firstly at Cardiff School of Art, and thence the Bath Academy at Corsham Court, Edward was to follow up with a perio...

David Jagger

One of the most respected and acclaimed portrait artists of his age, David Jagger was born near Rotherham in 1891. After studying at the Sheffield School of Art, David moved to London where he began to build a reputation...

Chantal Joffe (RA)

A deserved member of the Royal Academy, Chantel Joffe is one of the most exciting figurative painters at work in Britain today. She has an impressive academic background having graduated in Fine Art from Glasgow Art Sch...

Percy Kelly

Percy Kelly was born in Workington, Cumbria in 1918, being one of eight siblings. Despite an early aptitude for drawing, Percy left school at 14 to work for the Post Office. Interrupted by war, he served in the Royal Sig...

William Kennedy

Born in Hutchesontown in Glasgow in July 1859, moving to Paisley to live with his brother when orphaned at an early age. William Kennedy attended the Paisley School of Art. He moved to Paris in the early 1880’s where he ...

Dame Laura Knight

Dame Laura Knight, DBE RA RWS (1877 – 1970) was an English artist who worked in oils, watercolours, etching, engraving and drypoint. Knight was a painter in the figurative, realist tradition and who embraced English Impr...

Leon Kossoff

Leon Kossoff was born in Islington, London in 1926, living and working in the city until his death in 2019. In 1943, after returning to London following evacuation during the Second World War, Leon Kossoff obtained a ...

Jacob Kramer

1892 - 1962 ...

George Washington Lambert (ARA)

George Washington Lambert was an Australian artist, known principally for portrait paintings and as a war artist during the First World War. He was born in St Petersburg, Russia, the son of another George Washington Lamb...

Peter Lanyon

One of the most important and influential of Post-War British artists, Peter Lanyon was born in St. Ives, Cornwall in 1918. Principally an artist of landscape and seascape genres, Lanyon was to move into abstraction / ab...

Ben Levene (RA)

1938 - 2010 ...

Cathy Lewis

Cathy Lewis must surely be one of the foremost figurative sculptors at work in the UK today. A graduate of Glasgow School of Art, Falmouth School of Art and the University of the West of England, Cathy has built a reputa...

Alan Lowndes

Alan Lowndes 1921 – 1978 Born in Stockport in 1921, Alan left school at 14 to become, ironically, an apprentice decorator. That particular burgeoning career was interrupted at the outset of war, and Alan was to serve fo...

Collaboration Lucy Rie and Hans Coper

. ...

John MacLauchlan Milne

Born into an artistic family in Edinburgh in 1885, John MacLauchlan Milne was the son of the Scottish landscape painter Joseph Milne. Studying at the Edinburgh School of Art, he went on to serve in the Royal Flying Corps...

Theodore Major

Theodore Major 1908 - 1999 Born into somewhat humble beginnings in Wigan in 1908, Theodore attended a local art school from 1927 to 1932, going on to teach at the same institution from 1930 to 1950. Theodore Major exhi...

Jim Malone

Living near Wigton, in Cumbria, Jim is one of the most internationally celebrated and collected UK potters at work today. Potting in the true traditions of British pottery, using his self-built wood fired kiln to achieve...

Tom McGuinness

Born in 1926, Tom McGuinness was to become one of the "Bevan Boys" during the Second World War, working in the coal mines as a vital part of the war effort, keeping both industry and communities across the UK functioning...

John McNairn

John McNairn was born in the Scottish Borders in 1910, enrolling at The Edinburgh College of Art in 1927; an especially fertile period in the college’s history and then followed in the custom for the most talented Edinbu...

Mid-Century Modern Alternatives

When scouring the UK looking for modern British (20th century) works for the gallery, we often come across wonderful artworks which are unattributed or by less well-known names than we usually deal in, but which have str...

Howard Morgan

1949 - 2020 A highly successful and respected painter, of both portraiture and landscape, Howard Morgan was in 1986 elected as a member of the Royal Society of Portrait Painters. His commissions were numerous and includ...

Philip Naviasky

Born in Leeds to Polish Jewish immigrants, Philip Naviasky won a scholarship to the Leeds School of Fine Arts in 1907 when he was 13 years old. In 1912, aged only 18, he was accepted into the Royal Academy Schools, the y...

Angus Neil

Born in Kilbarchan, Renfrewshire in 1924, Angus saw active duty during WWII. Upon demobilisation he enrolled in the Hostpitalfield School of Art, Arbroath, in 1947; here he was to meet fellow artist, Joan Eardley. Subseq...

Winifred Nicholson

Born in Oxford in the latter stages of the nineteenth century, Winifred was an early starter at art school, at just eleven. In 1920 she married the thereafter and now internationally renowned artist Ben Nicholson, whom w...

Ben Nicholson

Ben Nicholson was born in 1894 to Sir William Nicholson and Mabel Pride, also artists. He trained at the Slade School of Fine Art in 1910, meeting Paul Nash, with whom he formed a close friendship with. In 1920 he marrie...

Kate Nicholson

1929 - 2019 ...

Hughie O'Donoghue (RA)

Hughie O’Donoghue was born in 1953 in Manchester of British-Irish descent, spending much of his youth in County Mayo. Studied at Goldsmith’s College, University of London, graduating in 1982. The discovery of different h...

Robert Organ

Robert Organ was born in 1933, in Hutton in Somerset. He studied art at The Royal West of England College of Art and in 1952 won a place at the Slade School of Fine Art under the tutelage of George Sweet and Claude Roger...

Stefan Orlowski

Stefan Orlowski is arguably one of the most talented exponents of classical meets contemporary painting at work in the UK today. Born in 1985, Stefan was to initially study for his BA in Fine Art at the University of Ab...

Colin Pearson

Colin was born in 1923 and had an illustrious career, not only as a ceramic artist, but also as a teacher of the same. Studying at Goldsmiths, London, working under the legendary Ray Finch at Winchcombe Pottery, he went ...

Bill Peascod

1920 - 1985 A nationally renowned climber and painter, William (Bill) Peascod was born in Maryport, Cumbria, in 1920. Entering the pits, like his father, at 13, it was to be a bike ride into the fells one early morning, ...

William Charles Penn RI

William Charles Penn 1877-1968 RP, ROI, R.Cam.A. William Charles Penn was a painter and influential teacher at Liverpool School of Art from 1911 until after World War II. Born in London, he studied at the Lambeth an......

Samuel Peploe

Born in 1871, Samuel Peploe was to become one of the most influential Scottish painters of the last century, one of a group of four artists who were to become known as the Scottish Colourists. Born in Edinburgh, briefly ...

Grayson Perry RA

Winner of the Turner Prize in 2003, elected a member of the Royal Academy of Arts in 2012 and awarded a CBE in 2013, Grayson Perry is of the most well know, respected and recognisable of British artists at work today. B...

William Plumptre

William Plumptre ...

Bertrand Py

Bertrand Py was born in Belfort, France, in 1895. Soon moving to Paris, he began showing interest in art from a very early age, eventually leaving his education in classical studies to focus on painting full-time, joinin...

Paula Rego (RA)

1935 - 2002 ...

William Reinsch

A young artist who is perhaps one of the most exciting new talents at work in the UK today. An astounding ability with figurative work, work which conveys as much about Will as artist as it does about the subjects he pai...

Shani Rhys James

A highly respected British artist, born in 1953, Shani was to graduate from St. Martin's School of Art in London before returning to her native Wales to continue her artistic career. Regarded as one of the foremost conte...

Miles Richmond

Born Peter Richmond in Isleworth, Middlesex in 1922, Peter went on to add Miles to his given name in the 1980’s, thereafter being known as such. Initially studying at Kingston upon Thames school of art (now known as Lon...

Chris Rigby

Born in Lancaster in 1967, Chris attended the Storey Institute, Lancaster & Morecambe College, Art and Design, before going on to study at the prestigious Falmouth School of Art. We first came across Chris' work whilst ...

George Rowlett

Painter, born in Troon, Ayrshire. Rowlett’s landscapes and seascapes were singular in their bold brush strokes, sweeps of the palette knife and thick impasto, capturing the essence of a scene. He studied at Grimsby Schoo...

Frank Runacres

Born in 1904, Frank Runacres was an English painter who studied at a number of prestigious colleges, including Saint Martin’s School of Art, the Slade School of Fine Arts and at the Royal College of Art between 1930 and ...

Robert Sadler

1909 - 2001 - biography pending ...

Jenny Saville (RA)

Born in 1970 in Cambridge, Jenny Saville has become one of the most respected, valued and thought-provoking of artists to emerge into the British and international art world in the last fifty years. Upon graduation fro...

Hans Schwarz

Born in Vienna, Austria in 1922 to Jewish parents, Hans Schwarz’s early life was a tumultuous one. After he lost his mother when he was 12, he was forced to drop out of art school in Vienna due to the Third Reich’s annex...

Marie Scott

Born in Orkney, Scotland and now living in East Lothian, Marie studied art at Aberdeen under the celebrated Scottish artist William Burns. Her work being extensively and successfully exhibited for many years, Marie has ...

John Shelton

John Shelton, 1923 - 1993, was initially to study and graduate from the Burslem School of Art, where he studied with and was a friend of another notable Staffordshire artist, Arthur Berry. In 1945 John was accepted into ...

John Emmet Sheridan

John Emmet Sheridan was born on June 14, 1877, in Tomah, Wisconsin, attending Georgetown University and graduating in 1901. During World War I, he created many patriotic posters in support of the United States' war effo...

Craig Simpson

A quite exceptional self-taught artist, Craig was born and brought up very close to Manchester; relocating in his late teens to Brighton, Craig began to express both himself and those around him through paint, building a...

Ian Stephenson (RA)

Born in 1934, Ian Stephenson studied Fine Art at Kings College, Durham. Following graduation, his first exhibition was held at the New Vision Centre in London in 1958 followed by a solo show at The New Art Centre in 1962...

David Storey

Threadneedle Prize finalist David Storey is a British figurative painter. His psychologically charged paintings are about memory, with half-remembered people and places emerging from complex layers of texture and colour....

John Stroomer

John Stroomer is an accomplished international potter with an insatiable passion for his work; its conception, the process, the execution and ultimately, the end result. A potter for over twenty five years, in his latt...

Rebecca Swainston

Rebecca Swainston’s work is expressive, vibrantly colourful and psychologically charged featuring powerful and memorable figures with animals, objects and intricate patterns. Her skilled draughtsmanship shows itself thro...

Helen Tabor

Helen Tabor was born in Middlesex but has lived in the Scottish Borders with her partner and three children for more than twenty years. She graduated in 1981 from York University, travelled widely to India and Bhutan whe...

John Thompson

John was born into a typical poverty stricken family in an economically depressed Oldham in 1924. As the only surviving son past infancy, John was expected to leave school at 14 and start "bringing some money in". This h...

Keith Vaughan

1912 - 1977 ...

Benjamin Warner

Benjamin was born in Cornwall in 1970, attending Falmouth School of art and design before embarking on a career in illustraion in London. Returing to his native Cornwall in 2004, Benjamin has developed into one of the mo...

Jason Wason

We recently travelled to visit Jason at his studio, just outside St Just in Cornwall; I think it must count as the most idyllic studio location we’ve ever encountered, helped no doubt by the clear blue sky echoing the to...

Carel Weight RA, CBE

Carel Weight 1908 – 1997 CBE, RA, RWA, RBA, LG Born in Paddington, London in 1908, Carel Weight studied at the Hammersmith School of Art from 1926, where he met and befriended Ruskin Spear. He then went on to study at ...

Anthony Whishaw (RA)

Anthony Whishaw RA studied at Chelsea School of Art from 1948 to 1952 (awarded NDD) and the Royal College of Art, London from 1952 to 1955, when he was awarded the ARCA (first class hons), the RCA Travelling Scholarship,...

Donald Wilkinson

My work is landscape based, about the experience of actually being in a place. I spend a great deal of time working on location often returning to the same piece of landscape again and again over a long period of a time....

Sir Kyffin Williams (RA)

Kyffin Williams ...

Joash Woodrow

1927 - 2006 Born in Leeds in 1927 to Polish Jewish parents, Joash Woodrow was number seven of nine siblings. Studying art at Leeds College of Art and from 1950-53 Joash was to win a scholarship to The Royal College of Ar...

Castlegate House Gallery

Ceri Allen

Louis Appleby

Alex Appleby

Jake Attree

Frank Auerbach

Frederick Austin

Michael Ayrton

Francis Bacon

Bill Bell

John Bellany (RA, CBE)

Sarah Jane Bellwood

June Bennett

Michael Bennett

David Bomberg

John Bratby (RA)

Alice Campbell

Sarah Carrington

Halima Cassell

Stephen Chambers (RA)

Peter Coker (RA)

Eileen Cooper (RA, OBE)

Norman Cornish

Malcolm Croft

William Crosbie

Bob Crossley

Alan Davie

Harold Dearden

Ronald Ossory Dunlop (RA)

Joan Eardley (RSA)

Mary Fedden RA

Sheila Fell RA FRSA

Richard Fitton

Colin Frooms

Sir Terry Frost (RA)

Helen Fryer

Frederick Gore (RA)

Katya Granova

Duncan Grant

Alistair Grant RSA, FRCA

Alasdair Gray

Martin Greenland

Alex Hain

Edgar Hereford

Josef Herman (RA)

Patrick Heron

Roger Hilton

Ivon Hitchens

David Hochhauser

David Hockney RA

Ken Howard RA

John Hoyland (RA)

Edward Hughes

David Jagger

Chantal Joffe (RA)

Percy Kelly

William Kennedy

Dame Laura Knight

Leon Kossoff

Jacob Kramer

George Washington Lambert (ARA)

Peter Lanyon

Ben Levene (RA)

Cathy Lewis

Alan Lowndes

Collaboration Lucy Rie and Hans Coper

John MacLauchlan Milne

Theodore Major

Jim Malone

Tom McGuinness

John McNairn

Mid-Century Modern Alternatives

Howard Morgan

Philip Naviasky

Angus Neil

Winifred Nicholson

Ben Nicholson

Kate Nicholson

Hughie O'Donoghue (RA)

Robert Organ