Artist     Sir Roger de Grey
Title      Interior/Exterior
Date      1990's
object    Painting
Media    oil
Size       127 x 132cm
Ref          778

Purchased from the 138th RWA Annual Exhibition in 1990

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Interior/Exterior
Roger de Grey was born in Buckinghamshire in 1918, the nephew of the noted post-impressionist English landscape painter, Spencer Gore. He would later marry the artist Flavia Irwin, a fellow RWA. He studied art at Chelsea Polytechnic between 1936–9 and once again from 1946–7 under such luminaries as Ceri Richards, Robert Medley, Harold Williamson and Raymond Coxon. His studies being interrupted for nearly seven years by his serving with the Royal Armoured Corps and seeing action in World war II between 1939–46.

As well as being a successful artist, de Grey enjoyed a long and distinguished teaching career, holding several important posts at Kings College, Newcastle University, the Royal College of Art, and the City and Guilds of London Art School. De Grey was primarily a landscape painter, working in both Kent and south-west France. He liked to paint in the open air whenever possible in the summer and to then later rework his canvases indoors in the winter. The painting in the RWA Collection, ‘Interior/Exterior’ combines his studied approach to painting the landscape with a sensitive handling of interior spaces.

He held his first solo show at Agnew in the Spring of 1954, after which time his work was exhibited at the Tate Gallery, Royal Academy and New Art Centre, the Queensland Gallery in New South Wales, Australia and at many other galleries all around the world.

Roger de Grey had a very long and fruitful relationship with the Royal Academy of Arts in London stretching to over thirty years. Elected A.R.A: in April of 1962, he became a full Academician in 1969 and was treasurer from 1976 until 1984 under the Presidency of fellow RWA Sir Hugh Casson. de Grey succeeded Casson when The Royal Academy elected him as its president in 1984 for a term that would last until 1993, he became the 21st holder of that most eminent position since Sir Joshua Reynolds took the post in 1768. Roger de Grey was elected Senior RA in October 1993. He was elected RWA in 1994.

de Grey was knighted in 1991 for his services to British Art. he received the signal honour of a Memorial show at RA in 1996 a year after his death. The Tate Gallery and Arts Council of Great Britain hold several examples of his work. He died in February 1995.

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