| Biography |
| 1905 | Born 19th March in Dulwich, South London. Elder child and only son of Alexander Gross (1880-1958), a Hungarian-born map publisher of Jewish descent, and Isabelle Crowley (1886-1938), his part Irish, part Anglo-Italian Catholic wife, a playwright and suffragette |
| 1906 | Birth of his sister Phyllis, later the artist, writer and founder of the Geographers' A-Z Map, Phyllis Pearsall |
| 1909-14 | Annual visits to Budapest and Curug, his father's birthplace, and to Ujvidék (now Novi Sad) |
| 1913 | Mother's feminist play Break the Walls Down performed at the Savoy Theatre. Family moved to The Firs, Claygate, Surrey. At his father's premises in Fleet Street, made his first drawings on stone with litho ink |
| 1919-1922 | Educated at Repton School, where his headmaster was Dr Fisher, later Archbishop of Canterbury, Lord Fisher of Lambeth, who became an early patron, and his art master was ex-Slade student Arthur Norris. On a visit to the school, the painter Louis Wain was impressed by Gross's work, and this resulted in him being given more time for painting and etching. His fellow pupils included Christopher Isherwood |
| 1920 | First post-war visit to Hungary. Made the woodcut 'Barn' as a Christmas card |
| 1921 | Painted his first oil, 'View from Study Window' and made his first etching, 'Serbian Street' |
| 1922 | Left Repton in December as a result of his parents' separation and father's bankruptcy. His father emigrated to the USA, settling first in Chicago and then in New York where he resumed his activities as a map-maker. His mother's new partner in London was American society portrait-painter Alfred Everett Orr, who paid Gross's fees at the Slade in 1923 and taught him how to set out the colours on the palette from left to right in the manner of Rubens |
| 1923 | Entered the Slade School under Professor Henry Tonks, and studied there from January to June. During the summer term also attended evening classes in etching with W P Robins at the Central School of Art. In the Easter and summer holidays, visited his sister Phyllis, now a pupil-teacher at Fécamp in Normandy. They painted and sketched together in the Normandy countryside. In the Autumn, Gross moved to Paris. Studied painting under Pierre Laurens at the Académie Julian and engraving under C A Waltner at the École des Beaux-Arts. |
| Found lodgings in the Rue des Canettes on the Left Bank, and produced some 16 etchings, the majority from drawings made in Normandy. Among his fellow students were Patrick Millard, Richard Pearsall, André Jacquemin and Léon Lang |
| 1924 | Stayed in Paris until April. Then travelled to Madrid and enrolled at the Academia de San Fernando life class and engraving class, under Carlos Berger. Fellow students were Vicente Cobreros, José-Luiz Sanchez-Toda and Vicente Sainz. Deeply impressed by the work of Goya. Signed contract by mail with Wilfred Deighton, of Deighton & Sons, The Strand, London, accepting £9 a month plus materials in exchange for all his work. The contract was to last 6 years. |
| At the end of the summer, he bought a donkey and travelled slowly north to Bilbao and Bermeo on the coast. Made many drawings on the way. |
| Returned briefly to England, then back to Madrid for the autumn term. Etched from drawings and paintings done in the summer. |
| 1925 | Winter term at Academia de San Fernando. |
| In Easter holidays, travelled with Phyllis in Andalusia and Spanish Morocco (Ceuta and Tetuan) during the Rif war. Spent Summer term in Madrid and etched plates from Moroccan drawings. |
| In November held his first one-man show at the Abbey Gallery, Victoria Street, London (W R Deighton & Sons). Showed oil paintings, watercolours and 34 etchings of France, Morocco and England |
| 1926-27 | In Paris from October to March at the Académie Julian, also attending life classes at the Grande Chaumière, along with SW Hayter and Balthus. With Hayter, learned engraving and printing techniques from Joseph Hecht, the Polish-born engraver |
| 1928 | Winter in Belgium, painting and etching. Views of Bruges and Tournai. |
| Rented a small studio in Brussels. Visited Cannes to stay with his mother and sister Phyllis, recently married to Dick Pearsall. |
| From Brussels in the spring, 'dissatisfied with everything', returned to Paris. At the suggestion of Lefèvre-Foinet, artists' material suppliers, took the train south to Brive, in the Corrèze. Befriended journalist Jean Madelaigue. Spent the summer in Brive and nearby village of Chasteaux, then moved to Cahors and Cabrerets in the Lot. Influence of Van Gogh became very strong. Spent the autumn in Toulouse, attending classes at the École des Beaux-Arts, under Louvrier, and produced etchings of Cahors and Toulouse. His print 'La Foule' marked a turning point in his practice of etching, heralding a linear approach. |
| 1929 | Moved to Saint-Tropez and stayed with his mother at Cannes. Christopher Isherwood introduced him to musician André Mangeot and his son Sylvain. Visited Francis Picabia at Mougins. |
| Returned to Brive and Chasteaux in the spring, then on to the village of Bach, in the Lot, where he painted oils which he judged 'really good'. |
| Back in Brive in September, continued painting, then returned to Paris in October. Meanwhile the contract with Deighton had ended. |
| In Paris, shared a studio with Hayter in Montparnasse and sold paintings to the dealer Van Leer. Met Fernand Léger. With the world slump, the art market collapsed and paintings failed to sell |
| 1930 | Married fashion-artist Marcelle Marguerite (Daisy) Florenty (1899-1988) and moved into her studio in the Hameau Boileau, Auteuil. Painted in the shanty-town of la Zone, between the Seine and Issy-les-Moulineaux. Etchings followed oils ('La Zone' and 'Sortie d'Usine' series). Introduced to circle of Daisy's Russian émigré friends, including Ossip Zadkine, Yuri Annenkoff, Natalia Goncharova and Boris Souvarine. Influenced by Annenkoff's work and by Daisy's fashion drawings. |
| In the summer first visit to Daisy's home town, Villeneuve-sur-Lot, where her parents ran a shop selling artificial flowers and wreaths. Painted 'Daisy and Yette, Route de Monflanquin'. |
| 1931 | In Paris, exhibited paintings at Salon des Tuileries and Salon d'Automne. Continued 'Sortie d'Usine' series of etchings. Frequent contact with Pierre Guastalla, André Jacquemin, Léon Lang and other printmakers. Drew for Russian émigré magazine, Satiricon. Designed set and costumes for avant-garde ballet Chauve-Souris. Watercolour 'Le Vivier' and drawings of shop scenes during his second visit to Villeneuve. |
| 1932 | Completed first cartoon film Une Journée en Afrique, with Courtland (Hector) Hoppin, a wealthy American expatriate who provided the capital and his skill as a photographer. Began work on films Les Funérailles and La Joie de Vivre. Oil painting 'La Route de Sainte-Livrade (Villeneuve). Summer spent in the Spanish fishing village of Cambrils, Tarragona, the scene of several notable paintings and etchings |
| 1933 | Hungarian composer Tibor Harsanyi commissioned to compose score for La Joie de Vivre. Gross prepared another cartoon film, The Storm, in colour, set in Cambrils. Painted in gouache and watercolour. Etching 'La Route de Sainte-Livrade'. Elected member of La Jeune Gravure Contemporaine, the society of printmakers founded in Paris in 1929. |
| Exhibited regularly with the Society for the rest of his life, and many members, such as Étienne Cournault, Pierre Guastalla and Yves Alix, became close friends |
| 1934 | La Joie de Vivre showed to much acclaim in Paris, London and New York. Gross and Hoppin moved to London and accepted a contract with Alexander Korda. Rented house in Godfrey Street, Chelsea. Painted with casein on board. Etched 'Kites in Battersea Park'. First show at the Leicester Galleries. Boat trip to Santander and Vigo. Painted watercolour 'La Guardia a Monte Santa, Tecla', near Vigo |
| 1935 | La Joie de Vivre purchased by the Museum of Modern Art, New York. Worked on colour cartoon-film Fox Hunt for Korda's London Films. Gathered around him at Hounslow a team of copyists, including still unknown cartoonist Giles, to help with animation on celluloid. |
| Birth of daughter Mary. Worked on cartoon project The Nativity |
| 1936 | Completed Fox Hunt. Illustrated a limited edition of Jean Cocteau's Les Enfants Terribles, with 75 line drawings and 7 etchings, printed by Bill Hayter at his Atelier 17. Etched 'La Maison du Poète'. Appointed Art Director for London Films, but was now growing disillusioned with the film industry and decided to return to Paris |
| 1937 | Death of his mother in February in London. |
| In Paris, started to illustrate George Borrow's Bible in Spain, a project later abandoned. Visited Hoppin in Grindelwald to prepare scenario for a long colour cartoon-film adaptation of Jules Verne's Around the World in Eighty Days. Etched 'Canal de Bourgogne'. |
| Birth of son Jean-Pierre (Pete) |
| 1938 | Harsanyi agreed to compose score for Around the World. Large exhibition of La Jeune Gravure at the Faubourg Saint-Honoré, Paris. Around the World gouaches shown at City of Paris Petit Palais Exhibition. Further paintings and etchings of Villeneuve. |
| 1939 | Work on Around the World interrupted by war. In September, after leaving his family in Villeneuve, Gross hastened back to London and worked on a new film project, The Ballad of Barrage Balloons. Watercolours of London preparing for war |
| 1940 | Further work commissioned by the War Artists' Advisory Committee, chaired by Sir Kenneth Clark. In early May, Gross returned briefly to Villeneuve, and despite the invasion of France by the Germans, managed to bring his family out in July by one of the last ships to depart from Bordeaux, Glasgow-bound. In London, resumed his sketches for the War Office. Took part in a joint war artists' exhibition at the National Gallery. |
| Moved his family to Flamstead, Herts, for the duration of the war |
| 1941 | A roving commission took him to Caterham in Surrey, Catterick in Yorkshire, Dover and Shoeburyness. 98 works completed in 1940-41. |
| Appointed Official War Artist with the rank of Army Captain. Embarked on troopship Highland Monarch at Avonmouth, bound for the Middle East via the Cape |
| 1942 | Painted 'Convoy' series aboard the ship from the North Atlantic to Suez, Sierra Leone, the Cape, the Indian Ocean and Aden. |
| Made his base in Cairo, then joined the Ninth Army, Arab Legion and British Druze Regiment in Lebanon and Syria. Visited Mesopotamia, Kurdistan and Persia. Fascinated by Isfahan. Returned to Cairo and witnessed the Eighth Army desert campaign prior to Al Alamein and painted 'Battle of Egypt' series. Befriended fellow war-artists Edward Ardizzone and Edward Bawden. Second visit to Persia |
| 1943 | Posted to India and Burma. Visited the Arakan to record the naval campaign in the Bay of Bengal. Journeyed up the Mayu river by sampan. Thence into Nagaland and the Chin Hills on a 450-mile trek to cover the so-called 'Forgotten Army' fighting the Japanese. Returned to Chittagong and then Calcutta, where he completed his 'Battle of Arakan' and 'Chins at War' series. Posted to Tunis to cover the Fourth Indian Division in North Africa. |
| Returned home by air via Cairo, Algiers and Fez. |
| One-man show at the National Gallery, 'India in Action', which then toured Australia and North America. |
| 1944 | Posted to 50th Northumbrian Division and 1st US Infantry Division to cover preparations for the Allied Invasion of France. |
| On D-Day (6th June), waded ashore at Arromanches, 'holding aloft his water-colour paper and paints'. Sketched liberation of Bayeux and city of Caen in ruins. Painted 'Liberation and Battle of France' series in Brittany and Normandy, including portraits of C-in-C General Montgomery and French Resistance fighters. Present at the liberation of Paris with General de Gaulle. Personally 'liberated' Parisian suburb of Fontenay-aux-Roses. In the winter, painted 'Gateways into Germany' series (Brussels, Maastricht, Venray). |
| 1945 | Toured Eastern and Southern France, then moved into Germany for the 'Final Stages of the German War'. Present on 26 April at the meeting of the US and Russian troops at Torgau on the Elbe. |
| In all, as a War Artist, Gross estimated having painted some 500 pictures. |
| Moved to Old Church Street, Chelsea, his home for the next thirteen years |
| 1946 | Exhibited war paintings at the Tate Gallery and Jeu de Paume in Paris. Etched scenes from his travels. Painted watercolours of the English seaside and London after the war. Spent Easter at Villeneuve. Commissioned by Paul Elek to illustrate Emily Brontë's Wuthering Heights |
| 1947 | Began illustrating Hans Christian Anderson's Fairy Tales, but project later abandoned. Watercolours executed on and around Eelbrook Common, Fulham, and in the City. Revisited the Lot and Lot-et-Garonne, staying with friends Madelaigue at Montgesty, near Cahors, and Lagasserie at Jarlan, near Villeneuve. |
| Made the first of three large colour lithographs for J Lyons & Co, 'Herne Bay Pier'. Wuthering Heights published with 19 illustrations (Camden Classics) |
| 1948 | Visited the industrial North, sketching colliery and foundry scenes at Stanley, Co Durham, Newcastle and Corby, for Future magazine. |
| Summer in Normandy at the Madelaigue's cottage in Francheville, on the river Iton,where he sketched the waterside vegetation and worked with casein on board. |
| Began teaching life drawing at the Central School (until 1954). |
| Elected member of the London Group, with whom he exhibited regularly until 1971. Commissioned by John Lewis to illustrate John Galsworthy's The Forsyte Saga |
| 1949 | First summer spent in the small village of Saint-Matré in the Lot, the setting of many paintings in subsequent years. The Saint-Matré sketches led oil paintings of rocks, stones and juniper, executed in his Chelsea studio. Exhibited at the Petit Palais International Print Show, Paris. |
| Second J Lyons colour lithograph, 'Cricket Match'. |
| Illustrated Old Christmases (W Stode) |
| 1950 | Gross's friend Hayter returned from the USA. They spent the summer together at Saint-Matré. More rock and heathland paintings executed in situ. First illustrated edition of John Galsworthy's The Forsyte Saga published in Heinemann, with 12 colour lithographs and 72 line drawings and vignettes. |
| 1951 | Public showing of unfinished cartoon film Around the World in Eighty Days at the ICA London. First illustration for Radio Times of 'Point of Departure' (Anouilh's Eurydice). Illustrated Special Occasions (Festival of Britain). Returned to Cambrils in Spain, where he visited Joan Miró at Montroig, his family farm in Tarragona. Many paintings of fish. |
| 1952 | Portrait of Douglas Fairbanks for Contact. Befriended sculptors Eduardo Paolozzi and William Turnbull. |
| Resumed work on Around the World with the British Film Institute |
| Exhibited etchings at the Musée d'Art Moderne, and paintings and prints at Sago Le Garrec, Paris |
| Summer spent at Varengeville, near Dieppe, Normandy. Painted 'Queen Anne's Lace' series of watercolours. Met Georges Braque |
| 1953 | Six-month visit to USA. Alistair Cook introduced Gross to the Fleming family, with whom he stayed on their plantation at Lafitte, Louisiana. Painted 'Spanish Moss' and New Orleans 'Black Quarter' series. |
| Held one-man show in New York. Made Coronation lithograph 'Hampstead Heath' |
| Returned to Saint-Matré for more painting |
| 1954 | Awarded prize at 3rd International Print Fair of Lugano for 'La Maison du Poète'. Sketched London crowd scenes at King's Cross, St Pancras and Stratford East, and painted more farming scenes with figures at Saint-Matré ('Return from the Fields'). |
| One-man show of Gross's war paintings at the Imperial War Museum, London |
| Illustrated first William Golding book jacket, Lord of the Flies (Faber). Third J Lyons lithograph, 'Louisiana Landscape'. |
| Started teaching printmaking at the Slade School, under Sir William Coldstream. Befriended Slade colleagues Lynton Lamb and F E McWilliam |
| 1955 | Louvre Print Room commissioned plate 'Fête votive à Ferrières'. |
| Illustrated Germinie (Germinie Lacerteux) by Jules & Edmond de Goncourt, with 8 drawings (Weidenfeld & Nicholson) |
| Awarded prize at International Exhibition of Engraving at Llubljana |
| Completed an abridged version of animated film Around the World, narrated by Donald Pleasance, for copyright reasons under a new title, An Indian Fantasy. Bought house in Le Boulvé (Lot), henceforth his spring and summer residence. Painted his first 'Yellow Valley' landscape. |
| 1956 | An Indian Fantasy shown at the National Film Theatre. The 'Le Boulvé Suite' of large etchings, printed by C H Welch and exhibited at Robert Erskine's St George's Gallery, London, proved a landmark in Gross's art. Most of his paintings and etchings after this date had as their subjects the people, landscape and vegetation of le Boulvé and its district |
| 1957 | Showing of film Artist's Proof, produced by Robert Erskine, directed by J Gibbon, featuring Gross, Jarvis, Grant, Evans, Harrison & Coplans |
| More 'Yellow Valleys' painted. |
| Philadelphia Museum of Art prize for Gross's etching 'The Valley' (No 1) |
| 1958 | Death of his father in March, aboard the Queen Elizabeth, bound for Southampton |
| 1959 | Exhibition 'The Graven Image' organised at the Whitechapel Gallery by Bryan Robertson and Robert Erskine, celebrating the revival of British printmaking, including Gross's 'Le Boulvé Suite' |
| Painted large upright linear landscapes at Bellaye, near Le Boulvé |
| Left Chelsea for smaller premises in Blackheath |
| 1960 | John Read's BBC TV film Anthony Gross, The Artist Speaks shot at Le Boulvé and the Slade School, London. |
| Painted tree and forest scenes, including 'Blue Forest Light'. |
| Commenced 'Charivari Suite' of large etchings |
| Illustrated Henry James's English Hours, with 29 drawings (Heinemann) |
| 1961 | Completed 'Charivari Suite'. Watercolours in Kentish orchards. |
| Victoria and Albert Museum commissioned three demonstration plates, 'Trees', for permanent display in the Museum |
| 1962 | Painted surrealist landscapes with imaginary figures, followed by similar etchings |
| 1963 | Oil painting 'Landscape with Pumpkins' shown at the London Group |
| Painted 'aerial' views of London. Etched 'Dryads' |
| Colour lithograph 'Bottom and the Fairies' |
| Joined Engraving Faculty, British School at Rome |
| 1964 | Paintings of vineyards in France |
| 1965 | Elected first President of the Printmakers' Council |
| 'Aquitaine' oil paintings and experiments with 'Shadows' and 'Water-Boatmen' |
| 1965-66 | Visiting Professor at Minneapolis School of Art, Minnesota, USA |
| Etched 'Shadows', 'Sea-Shore' and 'Over the Ocean' |
| 1967 | Painted 'Blue Reflections' and pursued investigations into shadows and ripples. Moved from Blackheath to small house and printshop near Greenwich Park, which he equipped with the press formerly belonging to the intaglio printer, C H Welch |
| 1968 | Retrospective Exhibition 'The Graphic Work of Anthony Gross, 1921-1968' at the Victoria and Albert Museum, with 226 prints on show |
| Contributed 15 drawings to the Book of Genesis in The Oxford Illustrated Old Testament, Vol I 'The Pentateuch'. |
| 1969 | Exhibition of Gross's paintings and prints and showing of his films to mark the opening of the Greenwich Theatre. |
| Befriended the poet C Day Lewis |
| 1970 | Published Etching, Engraving and Intaglio Printing, 'a printmaker's handbook' (Oxford University Press) |
| 1971 | Publication of Sixe Idyllia of Theocritus, presented by Douglas Cleverdon, a limited edition with 8 etched plates by Anthony Gross, printed by Dorothea Wright at Studio Prints |
| Retired from Slade School. |
| Invited to Rome as guest of the British School |
| Etched new versions of 'Reflections'. John Read made a BBC TV film on Gross the etcher, A Printmaker's Workshop |
| 1972 | Painted more vineyard scenes and his first 'Backwater, River Lot' |
| Omnibus TV programme, Artists in Wartime, devoted inter alia, to Gross |
| Began teaching his daughter Mary the craft of intaglio printing |
| 1973 | Gross elected President of Film Jury at Ninth International JICA Animated Film Festival at Annecy, France, for his work as an innovator in cartoon films |
| Vineyard scenes painted at Vire, Lot |
| 1974 | Returned to paint near Saint-Matré |
| Began engraving with burin out-of-doors |
| 1976 | Retrospective Exhibition 'Five Decades of Personal Vision, 1929-1976' at the New Art Centre, London |
| Painted more realistic oil landscapes in the manner of his watercolours |
| Henceforth, abandoned etching for burin engraving |
| 1978 | Painted first version of 'Les Causses' |
| Commenced large engraving of 'Sérignac' |
| Commenced illustrating The Very Rich Hours of Le Boulvé |
| 1979 | Elected an Associate of the Royal Academy |
| Elected Honorary Member of the Royal Society of Painter-Etchers and Engravers |
| Painted second version of 'Les Causses' |
| 1980 | Elected a Royal Academician. 'Les Causses' awarded the Charles Wollaston Prize for the most distinguished painting in the RA Summer Exhibition |
| Awarded Gold medal the Norwegian Print Biennale, Fredrikstad |
| The Very Rich Hours of Le Boulvé, written and illustrated by himself, a limited edition published by the Rampant Lions Press, with 26 etched and engraved plates printed by Mary Gross |
| 1981 | Watercolours painted in south-east London. More moorland paintings in France |
| 1982 | Appointed CBE |
| Painted 'Causse Landscape in Grisaille' and engraved a number of London pen and wash drawings from 1947 and 1954 |
| 1983 | Continued painting at Le Boulvé despite ill health |
| 1984 | Died at Le Boulvé on 8 September |
| 1995 | Redfern Gallery, London 'Anthony Gross RA 1905-1984, An Exhibition of Prints 1928-1984' |
| 2005 | Exhibtion of early prints and paintings at The Redfern Gallery, London |
| Collections |
| United Kingdom |
| British Museum, London |
| Tate Gallery, London |
| Royal Academy of Arts, London |
| Victoria and Albert Museum, London |
| Imperial War Museum, London |
| Guildhall Library, London |
| British Film Institute, London |
| Museum of the Moving Image, London |
| National Maritime Museum, London |
| Hunterian Museum & University Art Collections, Glasgow |
| Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art, Edinburgh |
| National Museum of Wales, Cardiff |
| Cartwright Art Gallery & Museum, Bradford |
| Dover Museum |
| Brighton Museum and Art Gallery |
| Leeds City Art Gallery |
| Southampton Art Gallery |
| Salford Art Gallery & Museum |
| City of Birmingham Museum & Art Gallery |
| Whitworth Art Gallery, Manchester |
| Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool |
| Ashmolean Museum, Oxford |
| Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge |
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| Australia |
| Art Gallery of South Australia, Adelaide |
| National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne |
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| Austria |
| Graphische Sammlung Albertina, Vienna |
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| Canada |
| National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa |
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| France |
| Cabinet des Estampes, Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris |
| Chalcographie du Louvre, Paris |
| Musée d'Art et d'Industrie, Saint-Etienne |
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| Germany |
| Berlin-Reinickendorfer Sammlung |
| Wilhelm-Lehmbruck-Museum, Duisburg |
| Stadtbibliothek, Essen |
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| Italy |
| Gabinetto Nazionale delle Stampe, Rome |
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| Liechtenstein |
| Staatsmuseum, Vaduz |
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| Netherlands |
| Rijksprentenkabinet, Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam |
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| New Zealand |
| Auckland City Art Gallery |
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| Norway |
| National Gallery, Oslo |
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| South Africa |
| South African National Gallery, Cape Town |
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| Sweden |
| Royal Academy of Fine Arts, Stockholm |
| Private Collection of the Royal Family |
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| Switzerland |
| Öffentliche Kunstsammlung, Basel |
| Graphische Sammlung, Zurich |
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| United States |
| National Gallery of Art, Washington DC |
| Library of Congress, Washington DC |
| Smithsonian Institute, Washington DC |
| Museum of Modern Art, New York |
| Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York |
| The Brooklyn Museum, New York |
| New York Public Library |
| Philadelphia Museum of Art |
| Print Club, Philadelphia |
| Boston Museum of Fine Arts |
| The Art Institute of Chicago |
| University of California, Berkeley |
| The Minneapolis Institute of Arts |
| Georgia Museum of Arts, Atlanta |
| Museum of Art, Providence, Rhode Island |
| Davidson Art Center, Connecticut |
| Southern Illinois University |
