SUDDABY, Rowland

1912 - 1972

Rowland Suddaby was born at 8 Poucher Street, Kimberworth, Rotherham, South Yorkshire on 3 January 1912, son of Rowland Suddaby (19 March 1886-1965), a warehouseman, and his wife Harriet Mansfield (24 June 1882-1967), daughter of Robert Mansfield, who married at Dronfield, Derbyshire on 2 October 1909 and in 1921 were living at 30 Standon Road, Sheffield, Yorkshire. Young Rowland studied at the Sheffield College of Art from 1926 and won a scholarship to the Royal College of Art. In 1931 he came to London where he struggled to make a living, but his work came to the notice of art collector Sir Rex Nan Kivell (1898-1977) and in 1935 he had a successful London show followed by a series of shows from 1936 at the Redfern Gallery. He married at Hendon in 1932, Pixie O’Neil (28 February 1909-1996) and their daughter Joanna was born in 1935. In the mid 1930s Suddaby painted vigorous and atmospheric pictures in London and Cornwall, these paintings, both in oils and watercolours, had spontaneity and a sureness of touch which caught the imagination of critics and collectors alike. In 1937, Suddaby with his wife, now called Elizabeth, and their daughter, moved to James Farm Cottages, Tendring, near Sudbury in the Suffolk countryside. Suddaby found the landscape and coastline of East Anglia an inspiration for his trademark pictures for which he is now most widely known. During the 1940s and 1950s Suddaby continued his still life painting which also became extremely popular. He exhibited at the Royal Academy; New English Art Club; Leger Galleries and in Paris and New York, and more locally at the Colchester Art Society, of which he was a founder member. By the early 1960s Suddaby had become increasingly interested in abstraction and started to experiment with his own work in watercolour and gouache which he did not sign, but after his death, a rich collection of these abstracts was uncovered, which added a significant contribution to his life's work as an artist. Rowland Suddaby lived at the Old Vicarage, Great Cornard, Sudbury, Suffolk and he died at 46 Gainsborough Street, Sudbury on 8 November 1972. Suddaby's work was acquired by many prominent collectors and public bodies, including the V & A Museum and there are twenty-four examples in the Government Art Collection.

Royal Academy Exhibits
from c/o Redfern Gallery Ltd., 20 Cork Street, London W 1
1946 80 Flowers in a Window
1947 859 The River Stour, near Sudbury - watercolour
1948 747 Suffolk Landscape - watercolour
         812 Mill Pool, near Lamarsh, Essex - watercolour
from Brookside, Crabbe Lane, Great Cornard, Sudbury, Suffolk
1951 402 Sunflowers and Fruit
1952 895 Low Tide on the Colne - watercolour
903 Flood Water on the Stour - watercolour
1953 797 Winter Landscape, Stoke by Nayland - watercolour
from The Old Vicarage, Great Cornard, Sudbury, Suffolk
1955 884 Approach to the Village, Cornard - watercolour
from c/o Redfern Gallery Ltd., 20 Cork Street, London W 1
1957 234 Dahlias on a Table
         991 Old Lock on the Stour, Essex - watercolour
1958 769 Yorkshire Window and Flowering Shrub - watercolour
from The Old Vicarage, Head Lane, Great Cornard, Sudbury, Suffolk
1959 181 Still Life with Summer Flowers
1960 492 Flowers and Still Life
         992 Water Meadows, Clare, Suffolk - watercolour
1961 945 Winter Landscape - watercolour
from The Leger Galleries, 13 Old Bond Street, London W 1
1964 Anemones and Jonquils in a Window - watercolour
1967 159 East Anglian Estuary - watercolour
756 Tulips and Japonica - watercolour
768 The River Stour at Wissington, Essex - watercolour

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Works by This Artist