Leonard Rosoman OBE RA (b.1917)

I really like Leonard Rosoman's work - whether he's painting, drawing or creating murals.  I saw some murals by him this week which hadn't really registered before and thought it was about time I highlighted this very talented artist - especially as he's 97 this year!  To my mind his art is going to live on in very many ways as he has a particular talent for recording life and events.

He was born in London in 1913 and has lived in London for most of his life.  His career has involved working as a traditional figurative artist, book illustrator and art school tutor.  He's maybe not one of the better known artists of his generation, however he is a very good artist and has exhibited extensively.

He trained at various art schools including the Royal Aacdemy Schools (1935-36) and then subsequently taught at Camberwell School of Art from 1946 to 1948, Edinburgh College of Art from 1948 to 1956, Chelsea School of Art and the Royal College of Art (1956-1978).   While at the Royal College he taught David Hockney and has a memorable quote about this experience in this record his radio interview for Desert Island Discs on the BBC.

 Murals by Leonard Rosoman in the Academy Restautrant at the Royal Academy

Rosoman the Academician (and recorder of Academicians)

His murals are in the Academy Restaurant at the Royal Academy of Arts and they focus on the activities within the building from  exhibition queues in the courtyard to Private Views to and classical statues in the Royal Academy Schools and the Life Class in the RA Schools Life Room. (see my sketchbook post Lunch at the Academy Restaurant at the RA and slideshow on Flickr)

He was elected as a Royal Academician (Painter) in 1969 and he appears to have become something of a recorder of matters relating to the Royal Academy.  Besides his murals in the Restaurant he also has a painting in the National Portrait Gallery - The Meeting which records all the Academicians participating in a meeting of the RA's Council.  (I'd add that this is a particularly bad photograph of the painting because the colour palette in the painting proper is nothing like this in real life.  I think somebody left their filter on by mistake!)

I particularly like the fact that this is a painter who also really enjoys drawing and creating figurative works in both senses of the word.  His paintings and drawings always seem to be created in layers and to have a narrative which needs to be teased out.  The painting of the Academicians is fascinating in terms of recording the character of the individuals and hence suggesting the tenor of how meetings are conducted.

The RA is not the only leading art society that he has recorded. Leonard Manasseh, a Past President of the RWA commissioned Rosoamn to make a painting to commemorate the RWA's 150th anniversary. 'The Council and Three Past Presidents of the RWA' was the result, which depicts a hanging day at the RWA.

 The Council and Three Past Presidents of the RWA

watercolour

copyright Leonard Rosoman

I just love the fact that his compositions of assembled groups never look forced and always prompt me to note how much he has observed and how he has recorded several small details which add weight and impact to the overall work.  He also demonstrates a sense of perspective without actually sticking rigidly to absolute correctness.  He creates realism without being hyper-realistic.

I think he's one of the artists who I've been most influenced by when sketching my groups in galleries, cafes and restaurants.  No matter how they come and go while I'm sketching I always try to have a semblance of narrative in the subject matter.

Rosoman the War Artist

He also recorded the second world war in art. He served as an Official War Artist to the Admiralty and in 1989 the Imperial War Museum had a retrospective exhibition of the artwork he created during the war.

During the Second World War, he served as a volunteer fireman in the Auxiliary Fire Service.  He featured in a recent Channel 4 television documentary about the Blitz in London (The Blitz - London's Longest Night) because of his experience of fire-fighting the blitz and the painting he created to record two AFS firemen being buried by a collapsing building in Shoe Lane.  His close friend and fellow firefighter survived the collapse.  However, the second fireman - who had just replaced Rosoman on the hose - was crushed to death under 15 feet of red hot bricks and masonry.

 House Collapsing on two Firemen, Shoe Lane, London EC4  

copyright Leonard Rosoman

Not surprisingly, the image haunted him for years and he created the painting as a result.  I would imagine an incident like that has quite an impact on how you spend your time and effort for the rest of your life.

I imagine you will not be astonished that not many paintings actually show air raids as they are in progress.  It has a purely practical reason: it was terribly dangerous to be out there, and unless you were a fireman artist or a civil defence artist, like Leonard Rosoman, you would not necessarily be an eyewitness of events.  One artist who tried to be an eyewitness, Felix Topolski was actually injured so badly that he had to stay in hospital for five weeks.  So we only have a handful of images of on-going raids, the fire fighting, the defence of the City, and I think the most famous one of these is Leonard Rosoman's 'A House Collapsing on Two Firemen'.

London at War - Ulrike Smalle

Rosoman's drawings

This is his drawing The Death of Actaeon, 1971 which was the Royal Academy Silver Jubilee Gift to HM The Queen in 1977.  The viewer allows you to zoom in on the drawing and you can see his vertical strokes and hatching marks which are so characteristic of his drawings.

His drawings were also used by Penguin for various Penguin Modern Classics covers - this one is for Aldous Huxley's Chrome Yellow.

He's always struck me as appearing to be a very quiet and unassuming man. However his work to my mind has lasting impact and I always very much enjoy seeing a new work by him in an exhibition. 

It has been said of Rosoman and his work that.....

Rosoman is a quirky artist ... It is his taste for quirkiness both in subject matter and form which enables Rosoman to move from intimate watercolours to public murals without his hand betraying any loss of spirit or enjoyment

John McEwan

Note:  The Battle of Britain started 70 years ago today. You can read more about it and the Blitz in the Imperial War Museum's blog about 1940)

ING Discerning Eye 2010 - Call for Entries

The Call for Entries for the 2010 ING Discerning Eye exhibition at the Mall Galleries has been published. The exhibition is an opportunity for lesser known artists to hang alongside internationally known artists. Below you can find details of how to enter plus a comment on whether or not it's worth entering.

The ING Discerning Eye Exhibition shows a number of small works selected by an indendent panel of six prominent figures at an exhibition at the Mall Galleries in November (11th November - 21st November 2010)

There are two artists, two collectors and two critics. The exhibition groups the works of each selector so that in six areas of the gallery, the works have a coherence in terms of what appeals to each selector. The work of very popular artists may pop up in two or more of these 'collections'.

What's your chances of getting accepted?

Is it worth you submitting work to this art competition? 

Let's look at the percentage of works are from open submission artists in the last two years:

• In 2008 279 (49%) of the 572 works on display were from the open submission artists.
• In 2009 226 (43%) of the 522 works on show were from the open submission artists 

So the OVERALL number of works being shown is reducing
Plus the percentage shown by open submission artists is reducing.  Which isn't a very positive message for those thinking of submitting via the open entry.

HOWEVER of the total of 162 works which sold last year (31% of the work exhibited):  

• 92 (40% of the open submission) of the sales related to works by open submission artists.  
• ONLY 25% of the art selected from non-open submission artists sold.  This is something of a negative comment on the popularity (or cost) of the art chosen from international artists known to the selectors because this means that 

So what does that say about the calibre of the selectors?

Maybe there's a bit of an incentive to select more from the open submission this year?   

I'm certainly very much in favour of there being an ABSOLUTE limit on how many works can be selected by each judge from their favoured non-open submission artists.  This is a major opportunity for NEW people to get their work seen in central London and we need to see as much new work as possible rather than seeing an exhibition of self interest and mutual back scratching as has been very evident on the part of some selectors in the past - notably gallery owners!

I'd suggest no more than 20% of the number of works selected by each selector can be from outside the open submission. The fewer works selected by an individual then the lower the number of works which can come from outside the open submission.

How to enter

There are two ways to have your work exhibited

• either through submitting work via the open submission (see below for a summary). 
• or by being invited by show work by one of the selectors - an opportunity which is used in very different ways by different selectors in the past. 

This is the website of the Discerning Eye Competition and Exhibition.

This art competition is administered by Parker Harris.  The ING Discerning Eye Call for Entries Leaflet - provides detailed guidance On their website you can find more details about the exhibition and download the following:

• ING How to Enter portal
• ING Discerning Eye Entry Form - must accompany all submissions
• ING Discerning Eye Work Label - required and must be fixed to the back of all work submitted
• ING Discerning Eye Membership Form - There is a membership system for artists (costing £40 pa) which includes free submission for up to 6 works. There's no guarantee of selection but the membership fee compares very favourably with the fees charged for submitting six works which will be £54.

The basics are as follows:

• all works must be handmade and within the maximum size limit (20 inches including frame or plinth/stand)
• all works nust be handmade (new this year?)
  
• drawings, paintings, sculptures and photographs are admissable
• all work must be submitted unpacked (ie no support for unpacking/packing)
• signed entry schedule must accompany all works
  
• final deadline for receipt of entries in London: 4th September 2010. The guidance provides details of receiving dates for 15 towns and cities throughout the UK besides London. The earliest receiving date is 28 August.
• submission fees £9 per work
• all works will be included in the online catalogue - and artists have to supply a suitable digital image if selected
• up to 600 works could be on display. Based on last year and the overall trend, one might expect somewhere between 200 and 250 to be from the open entry
• all works must be for sale - and 40% is charged on all sales. Last year 180 (31%) of the 572 works sold and of these 52% were from open submission artists (who did a little better than invited artists).
• work not sold in the exhibition will remain on display in the online exhibition until 1st january 2010
• detailed guidance on requirements for frames
• unselected works to be collected 10-11 September
• unsold works to be collected 26th November

Selectors

This year’s selectors, who will chose from publicly submitted works and works from invited artists are as listed below.

Artists

• Robbie Wraith
• Ishbel Myerscough

Collectors  

• Judy Collins I'm assuming it's the singer!
• Nina Campbell - a world renowened interior designer
  

Critics 

• Mark Rappolt (Art Review)
• Tim Barber (City AM - Style Counsel)
  

Prizes

There are a number of purchase prizes from the ING Purchase Prize which is worth £5,000 to the Humphreys Puchase Prize of £750. Further details are available in the leaflet.

There are also 8 prizes of £250 each for outstanding entries from (sic) "the national regions". I'm not quite sure how artists in Scotland, Wales or Northern Ireland might feel about their countries being designated 'regions'! I worked for a number of years in different contexts with colleagues across the UK and Ireland and I remember it being drummed into me that one always has to avoid the word 'region' being used for any area which lies outside England!

Exhibition

Admission to the exhibition is free.  Dates for the 2009 ING Discerning Eye Exhibition at the Mall Galleries in The Mall, London SW1 are as follows:

• opens to the public on Thursday 11th November 2009 at 10 am
• closes Sunday 21st November

The following are links to previous posts on this blog about the ING Discerning Eye:

• 2009: Exhibition Review - ING Discerning Eye 2009 and ING Discerning Eye 2009 - call for entries
• 2008: ING Discerning Eye 2008 - Prizewinners; ING Discerning Eye 2008 - a review; who's been selected for the ING discerning eye 2008?   and ING discerning eye 2008 - deadline 6th september
• 2007: ING Discerning Eye at the Mall Galleries

Links:

• Art Competitions in the UK - Resources for Artists
• The Discerning Eye
• Parker Harris - ING Discerning Eye
• Mall Galleries, The Mall, London SW1 12 - 22 November 2008 (10am to 5pm daily) Admission freees

Sargent and the Beach

Sargent and the Sea is the title of the exhibition which opens in the Sackler Galleries of the Royal Aacdemy of Arts on Saturday 10th July.  However I’m more inclined to remember it as Sargent and the Beach since it struck me that the much more successful paintings in the exhibition were figurative paintings of adults and children on the beach and foreshore.

'En Route pour la pêche (Setting Out to Fish)', 1878. 
Oil on canvas, 78.8 x 122.8 cm
Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., Museum Purchase, Gallery Fund 17.2

The exhibition of works by John Singer Sargent was conceived by Sarah Cash, curator of the Corcoran Museum in Washington who was present at the preview.  It revolves around one painting or maybe one should say two paintings of the same scene in Cancale in Britanny.

• The principal painting in the exhibition is Sargent's second submission to the Paris Salon En route pour la pêche (Setting out to Fish) (1878).  It is now owned by the Corcoran Gallery 
• A smaller version of the same painting - now owned by the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston - was submitted to the Inaugural Exhibition of the newly formed Society of American Artists (SAA).  You can see the painting in the middle below.  The study on the far left (below) is a related work - an earlier plein air study of the same scene.

Two rooms before the Cancale room and three rooms after it include other paintings and drawings produced during, or inspired by, the artist’s summer journeys from his home in Paris to Brittany, Normandy, and Capri, as well as two transatlantic voyages between Liverpool and the USA.  It’s also important to note that the exhibition focuses almost entirely on works completed during the years 1874-1879 when Singer Sargent was aged 18-23 and still completing his art education.

En Route pour la pêche (Setting Out to Fish)

 Three versions of the same scene are hung in the exhibition

En Route pour la pêche serves as the centerpiece of the exhibition - and yet it was completed when Sargent was just 22 years of age and on the threshold of his professional career as an artists.

Sargent submitted works to the Paris salon every year from 1877 to 1886.  It's very clear that the expedition to Cancale (June - August 1877) was made with the clear intention of creating a second painting which could survive the intense competition and be exhibited at the salon.  I guess it was all about providing that he was more than just a 'one hit wonder'!

It was also the first expedition that Sargent made on his own without his family who had travelled peripatetically around Europe ever since his birth in Florence in 1856.   With this expedition and this painting Sargent was 'coming of age'.  He was very clear, as a young painter, that the way to achieve his fame and fortune was to be exhibited in the Salon.   This painting could be said to have made his career.

The painting presents a view of women and children setting out to gather the fruits of the sea at low tide in the Breton fishing village of Cancale - renowned as "the famous oyster garden of France" and a phenomenon which was a tourist attraction.  Previous paintings by French artists depicting this scene hadbeen purchaed by French Museums - and Sargent was evidently trying to achieve the same sort of patronage.

John Singer Sargent
Girl on the Beach, Study for En Route pour la peche and Fishing for Oysters at Cancale, 1877
Oil on canvas, 48.3 x 29.2 cm
Terra Foundation for American Art, Daniel J. Terra Collection, Chicago, 1999.131

What's fascinating about the room is the display of the preparation which went into the painting.  The room comprises a number of studies - of figures - completed prior to the development of the paintings.  There are twelve preparatory and related works in oil and pencil which had been completed in the summer of 1877 prior to the development of the painting in Sargent's studio in Paris.  The catalogue devotes a whole chapter and many images to the process of the developing the painting. 

It's also fascinating that he produced two versions - painted in slightly different ways for two different exhibitions on either side of the Atlantic.  His journey to the USA for the first time in May 1876 enable him to appreciate that there were two potential markets for his work.  What's interesting is that the larger painting is sometimes known as the Oyster Gatherers of Cancale and the smaller painting is called Fishing for oysters at Cancale.    However Sargent was making his studies in the summer - in months which didn't contain an 'r' in their name and locals were prohibited from gathering oysters.

However the oysters enabled a connection with both sides of the Atlantic as New York used to have very famous and very extensive oyster beds and in the second half of the nineteenth century New York was experiencing oyster mania.  It therefore seems very likely that he had thought of a painting which might have two possible audiences on either side of the Atlantic.

Is Sargent a marine painter?

I’m not convinced by the description of Sargent as a marine painter or even the title of the exhibition.  It seems to me that the two rooms which contain by far his best work are the ones related to work he did at Cancale in Britanny and on Capri.  These works are all about the beach.  They are also very much about people rather than ships, boats or the sea. He’s painting people but not individuals.


His works on Capri focus on paintings of small naked boys lounging on the beach.  Again the room demonstrates how several separate studies, mainly in oil on mahogony boards, were used to develop the painting of  Neapolitan Children Bathing.  All share a thin quick techniqe of painting with oil plein air.  It's a study from life - but one assembled in the studio from studies made plein air. 

John Singer Sargent
Neapolitan Children Bathing, 1879
Oil on canvas, 16.8 x 41.1 cm
Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute, Williamstown, Massachusetts, 1955.852

I’m left feeling slightly ambivalent about this exhibition.

As a profile of a particular aspect of Singer Sargent’s work at a very early stage in his career it succeeds - if only by demonstrating to us the process he used to develop his paintings and also, it must be said, that sometimes his skills at this early stage were not always quite as remarkable as they were later in life.


While I appreciate that there are a number of sketches of ships and boats and some paintings of ships at sea these aren’t works which speak of Sargent to me.  It seems to me that this is Sargent at an age when he is experimenting.  In one painting he's trying to emulate Turner - but not doing too well, although it's a brave attempt.

In another, his painting Atlantic Sunset (1876) actually reminded me very much of Impression Sunrise (1872) - blue greys and a splash of orange.  Given Sargent was very much an admirer of Monet and that he painted it four years after Monet's painting was exhibited, it struck me that this is a very understandable act of emulation by a young man.

Atlantic Sunset c.1876

oil on canvas, 25.5" c 36"

Private Collection

The coda to the exhibition (the RA contribution - not seen in the Corcoran or Texas) are a collection of Venetian paintings mainly from the Royal Academy collection which only serve to heighten the contrast between some of his earlier works (particularly those in the last room) and the confidence of his use of watercolour and brushwork demonstrated clearly in the later work completed in Venice some 25 years later in the early 1900s. 

I certainly enjoyed seeing Sargent's sketches in graphite and these are well produced in the catalogue of the expedition.

One of the things I learned during the exhibition was that Sargent was an abysmal archivist of his own work.  Unlike Turner, whose bequeathed his work to the nation and whose 300 sketchbooks from trips around the UK and Europe can be viewed at Tate Britain, Sargent's work appears to have been distributed quite widely.  There is no central repository for his sketchbooks and it's also evident that he tended to take his sketchbooks apart to work from the sketches.  However the exhibition does include Sargent's scrapbook of the 1870s which is now owned by the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York.  It's huge and it contains a lot of sketches which have been pasted in after being used for other purposes.

Richard Ormond in front of the map of places where Sargent painted in Brittany

It was particularly gratifying to hear additional commentary from Richard Ormond, (Sargent’s great nephew and author of the catalogue raisonee).  You can read an excellent article by Ormond  Sargent and the Sea: Making waves on the website.

I'd recommend going to see the exhibition if only to view a small number of excellent paintings and a number of interesting studies and sketches in oil, watercolour and graphite. 

You can see my sketch of the Cancale painting in Sketching Sargent at the RA

Note: This exhibition has been organised by the Corcoran Gallery of Art in cooperation with the Royal Academy of Arts

Links:

• Sargent and the Sea, The Sackler Wing of Galleries 10 July – 26 September 2010
• John Singer Sargent - Resources for Artists 
• Tate Britain - paintings by John Singer Sargent
• Other paintings from 1878

National Portrait Gallery Appeal for Freed Slave Portrait

Portrait of Ayuba Suleiman Diallo also known as Job ben Solomon (c.1701-73)

by William Hoare (c.1707-72), 1733

Oil on canvas, 762 x 642 mm

This morning the National Portrait Gallery launched an Appeal to fund the balance required to secure the earliest known British oil painting of a freed slave which has never before been seen in public.

It's also the first portrait of a named African muslim in Britain.  The subject is Ayuba Suleiman Diallo (c.1701-73) (known when he was in England as Job ben Solomon), and it shows the sitter painted in 1733 in his traditional African dress wearing his copy of the Qur’an around his neck.

Ayuba's memoirs were published as one of the earliest slave narratives, that is, a first-person account of the slave trade, in Thomas Bluett's Some Memories of the Life of Job, the Son of the Solomon High Priest of Boonda in Africa; Who was a Slave about two Years in Maryland; and afterwards being brought to England, was set free, and sent to his native Land in the Year 1734.

He had been an educated man from a family of Muslim Clerics.  At the age of 29 he had been captured and enslaved and travelled to the USA - and survived the voyage (while many of course did not).  There he was found in Maryland by Thomas Bluett who recognising him to be an educated man who could write Arabic and brought him to England.  He was introduced to Society and met Sir Hans Sloan and the King.  In due course, he was freed due to public subscription.  At the time of the portrait, he is being treated as an individual and equal prior to returning home to West Africa. 

A total of £554,937 has to be raised by 25 August 2010 to secure this painting, after which it is at risk of export.   It was sold at Christies and is now the subject of a temporary export bar.  The Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF) and the Art Fund have already agreed to provide funding to help secure the painting of £333,000 and £100,000 respectively.

The intention is that if the money can be raised that a two year project will enable a range of activities and exhibitions with partner museums to explore issues associated with slavery, identity and portraiture.  If the Appeal raises the funds required, in Year 1 it will be on display in the National Portrait Gallery and in Year 2 it would tour to:

• the New Walk Museum and Art Gallery in Leicester
• the International Museum of Slavery in Liverpool
• and the North East Regional Museums Hub

Initially the plan is to have the portrait on display on the ground floor of the National Portrait Gallery until the end of August
.
A curious story

The back story to the portrait is very curious.  This is the information I was given by the NPG.

Ayuba Suleiman Diallo (c.1701-73) is significant to the history of the early eighteenth-century Transatlantic slave trade and Britain’s historical understanding of different cultures and religions. Born to a powerful family of Muslim clerics in the Senegambia region of West Africa, Diallo was a high-status, educated and wealthy individual who, as well as his native language, was versed in Arabic and came to learn English. In 1731, while on a trading mission to sell slaves down the River Gambia, Diallo was kidnapped, shaved of his beard – the distinguishing mark of his Islamic identity – and sold into slavery. He was then transported on a British ship to Maryland where he was sold and put to work on a tobacco plantation. Frustrated by the hard physical labour and the abuse he received when conducting his prayers, Diallo escaped. He was soon caught and imprisoned but was permitted to write a letter, in Arabic, to his father. This incident came to the attention of the English lawyer and missionary Thomas Bluett, who was impressed by Diallo’s character, his literacy and strict observance of Islamic prayers and dietary laws, and concluded that Diallo was ‘no common Slave’ (Bluett, Memoirs).

Bluett brought Diallo to London in 1733 where they lodged together for a while before Diallo moved to Africa House in the City, at the expense of the Royal African Company. During his time in England, he was received with enthusiasm by aristocrats and scholars including the 2nd Duke of Montagu and the Duke of Devonshire. He was soon regarded as an ‘African gentleman’ -- an unusual accolade in the eighteenth century which reflects the esteem in which he was held by his supporters who admired his religious conviction and found reassuring parallels in his moral standards and monotheistic theology.

He translated Arabic manuscripts and inscriptions for Sir Hans Sloane and made three transcriptions of the Qur’an from memory. Sloane arranged for Diallo to be presented to King George II and Queen Caroline and to be elected a member of the Gentleman’s Society of Spalding. Diallo was freed from slavery with money raised by public subscription and arrangements were made for his return to Africa, making him one of the very few victims of the slave trade to survive and return home. Although Diallo went back to owning slaves - as non-Muslims he considered them ‘infidels’ – he was determined to negotiate the freedom of a fellow Muslim who had been enslaved at the same time as him. He also brokered arrangements with the Royal African Company for the redemption of any Muslim slave who fell into their hands in the future.

It's amazing that we should know so much about an individual and his life considering what happened to him.  I recommend clicking the link to Bluett's memoirs and reading the sections relating to this individual.

It's even more amazing that a portrait exists, given the attitude of some traditional muslims to the creation of portraits and who can portray what to whom.

His supporters additionally arranged for him to sit for this portrait, which is also the earliest known painting by the artist William Hoare of Bath. The conflict for the sitter is recorded in a contemporary account which not only indicates the affection in which Diallo was held but sheds light on the practice of portraiture in England and other cultures

‘Job’s Aversion to Pictures of all Sorts, was exceeding great; insomuch, that it was with great Difficulty that he could be brought to sit for his own. We assured him that we never worshipped any Picture, and that we wanted his for no other End but to keep us in mind of him. He at last consented to have it drawn; which was done by Mr Hoare.’
(Thomas Bluett, Memoirs, p.50)

The artist has responded sensitively to Diallo’s personality by depicting him, at the sitter’s own request, in his traditional dress and carrying his copy of the Qur’an around his neck. The painting has not previously been exhibited in public, although it was engraved in 1734 and a version was published again in 1750.

I think there will be some interesting challenges posed for museums when presenting the portrait.  Both in terms of Diallo personally who was himself a slave owner and went back to owning household slaves when he returned home and, secondly, the acceptance by Islam of slavery at that time (ie 18th century).  Today in Africa there has been no abolition of slavery

Slavery in Africa continues today.   Slavery existed in Africa before the arrival of Europeans - as did a slave trade that exported millions of Africans to North Africa, the Middle East, and the Persian Gulf
Wikipedia - Slavery in modern Africa

There is also some considerable scope to explore the attitudes of Islam towards portraiture generally both past and present and how this varies in place and time.  The gallery is being supported by some expert advice on this matter.

However it is an extremely fine portrait and one which has really exceptional historical and sociological importance and the Appeal is well worth supporting.

Donations to the National Portrait Gallery Ayuba Suleiman Diallo Appeal can be made:

• online at www.npg.org.uk/diallo
• or by contacting either Susie Holden on 020 7312 2454 / sholden@npg.org.uk or Stephanie Weissman on 020 7321 6645 / sweissman@npg.org.uk

National Portrait Gallery, St Martin’s Place, WC2H 0HE 
Opening hours: Saturday-Wednesday: 10am – 6pm; Late Opening: Thursday, Fridays:10am - 9pm 

Estate Planning for Artists

Q. What's the one task many of us avoid doing?
A. Planning for what happens after we're gone.

You're an artist.

• Do the executors of your will know what to do with your artwork after your death?  
• Does your will even recognise the fact that you are an artist and have a body of work?
• Does your family know how to create an income stream from your artwork after you're gone?
• Do you know what you need to do before you die if you're not going to create an undue burden for anybody else?

Tina Mammoser (The Cycling Artist) has been trying to track down a "will for artists" for some time.  Every time I see another bit in the jigsaw of information I kept thinking I must have a go and see if I can create another "resources for artists" information site.

I finally got round to doing this just recently.

Art After Death - Resources for Artists comprises everything I can find at the moment on the Internet by way of links to what look like helpful sites.

It's got three main sections plus some book lists.  You can find the contents below.  I've highlighted the key sections in bold.

• What is Estate Planning?
• ESTATE PLANNING FOR ARTISTS
• THE SENIOR ARTISTS INITIATIVE
• BOOKS: Estate Planning for Artists
• Copyright after death
• Art and death - Resources for Artists
• FAMOUS ARTISTS ESTATES
• BOOKS: Learn from the experience of others
• Artists' Estates: Auction and Art Sales
• What to do with artists' ephemera?
• ESTATE PLANNING FOR ART COLLECTORS
• BOOKS: Estate Planning for Art Collectors
• BOOKS: Estate Planning - generic issues
• Blogging about art after death

If you know of any other helpful sites please leave a comment and a link below.

I know this is a bit of an unusual topic(!) but I'd love to hear your comments / questions and/or suggestions for how to develop this as an information resource for artists to share.