Blue Sky in Pimlico, early 1980s
Born in Wilmslow, Cheshire, in 1923, George began painting at the age of 7, when he attended the Downs school in Herefordshire. The head of the art department, Maurice Feild, was a strong influence on him, as was William Coldstream, who visited the school to paint W.H. Auden's portrait (Auden taught at the Downs for a number of years). From the Downs, George went to Bryanston School, in Dorset, where he became friends with fellow pupil Lucian Freud, with whom he founded an oil painting club. Bryanston was followed by a year on a bursary to Edinburgh College of Art, before service in the Navy until 1946, where he was both part of the Normandy landings, and was sent to the Far East.
Upon his demobilisation, George attended the Camberwell School of Art, where the teaching staff included Coldstream, Lawrence Gowing, Victor Pasmore and Kenneth Martin. He took up a part-time post at the Slade under Coldstream, who became principal in 1949. George was to remain there until 1988, at which time he was both Professor of Fine Art and Director of the School.
George’s first solo show was at Gainsborough’s House, Sudbury, in 1975, and five years later he was given a retrospective at the Serpentine. In 1984 he begun exhibiting with Browse & Darby. George died in 2016.