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| Nude with Back View | Girl With Scarf & Leggings |
1909 - 2000
A painter and muralist, influenced by Frank Brangwen and Tiepolo.
Born in a Northampton slum, his father – returning disillusioned from the First World War – committed suicide when he was young. On leaving Campbell Square School, he took menial jobs in factories to subsidise his study at the Northampton School of Art, under Lewis Duckett. He won a scholarship to the Royal College of Art, where he continued to accumulate prizes including the Painting and Portrait Prize, the Continuation Scholarship and the Royal College’s highest award, the Travelling Scholarship. Henry Bird was much influenced by Rembrandt, with whom he shared the same birthday, 15th July. Teacher Alan Sorrell first saw his potential as a mural painter and after graduating he earned an income painting decorative church interiors and also Inn signs for Ernest Fell.
Began lecturing in Art History in Wales from 1936 onwards where he married Freda Jackson, a young actress he had met in Rep at Northampton, where the company had included Errol Flynn, reputedly her lover. Henry also joined the theatre as head scene painter at the Old Vic, Sadler’s Wells and the Embassy Theatre (1945-50). He also decorated Northampton’s Guildhall with The Muses Contemplating Northampton. Returned to the town in the 1950’s to take a post at his old School of Art. He continued mural works in the chapel of St Crispin’s Hospital and at Danetree Hospital, Daventry.
In 1974, he undertook Denton Church mural – an ambitious project including 35 life-size figures, many based on local people. He also completed the Fire Curtain at the Royal Theatre in Northampton, which included vignettes of Freda on one side of the proscenium and Errol Flynn on the other. He continued prolific drawing of the nude figure throughout his career and his later influences include Rubens and Egon Schiele; apparently keeping cream cakes and Gin in his fridge to keep his models ‘fat and warm’.
Exhibitions Include:
Associate of the Royal College of Art; Society of Mural Painters; Tate Gallery; Victoria & Albert Museum; Lambeth Palace; Subject of a TV documentary by Anglia in 1981.