Paul Hogarth

Paul Hogarth was born in Kendall in 1917 and died on December 27th 2001, aged 84. He was one of the most prolific and successful commercial artists of his day and has been described as "Britain's best descriptive graphic artist". In the course of a long career his ideas changed considerably and his style developed from a bleak realism to a gayer, more humorous eclecticism. His most frequent subjects were people, landscapes and buildings. The ones he was most drawn to were the buildings, which gave great scope to his dramatic sense of scale and perspective.

Hogarth began his art training at Manchester College of Art and later studied in London at St Martin’s School of Art. A Royal Academician since 1974, he is best known for his images of exotic places. These have appeared in his own books and prints and also in collaboration with Brendan Behan, Robert Graves, Stephen Spender, Graham Greene and Lawrence Durrell. He illustrated a large format edition of Peter Mayle’s ‘Year in Provence’ in 1992. His autobiography ‘Drawing on Life’ was published by David & Charles in 1998.

He was appointed OBE in 1989 and was awarded an honorary doctorate by Manchester University in 1999.

In his 80’s Hogarth was still travelling regularly in search of new images and had annual exhibitions at the Francis Kyle Gallery in London. He frequently contributed illustrations to magazines including the Daily Telegraph Magazine and the Times. Every year he published new limited edition lithographs through Contemporary Art Holdings Ltd.. His final print will be shown at the Royal Academy Summer Exhibition in 2002.