COLDSTREAM, Sir William Menzies

1908 - 1987

William Menzies Coldstream was born at Belford, Northumberland on 28 February 1908, youngest of the five children of Dr George Probyn Coldstream (16 August 1870-13 February 1950), M.D., who was born in Lahore, Punjab, and his wife Susan Jane Lilian Tod (28 July 1869-17 April 1960), known as Lilian, daughter of Major Robert Mercer-Tod of St Leonards, who married at St Mary Magdalen Church, St Leonards-on-Sea, Sussex on 25 April 1895. In 1911, William was a 3-year-old living at 10 Garlinge Road, Hampstead, London with his parents, 40-year-old George and 41-year-old Susan and three of his siblings. William was educated privately, and studied at the Slade School of Fine Art 1926-1929, under Henry Tonks (9 April 1862–8 January 1937) and at University College London. At University College, he met Nancy Culliford Sharp (29 October 1909-20 June 2001 ), whom he married in London on 22 July 1931, and they had two daughters, but the marriage was not a success. With Graham Bell (21 November 1910–9 August 1943), Victor Pasmore (3 December 1908-23 January 1998) and Claude Rogers (27 January 1907–18 February 1979), they co-founded the Euston Road School in 1937. At the start of the Second World War, William enlisted in the Royal Artillery and in 1943 appointed a War Artist and worked in Egypt and Italy. His earlier years were characterised by a dedicated engagement with socialist ideals, and in the pursuit of a non-elitist form of art. During this period, he was close friends with the composer Benjamin Britten (22 November 1913–4 December 1976) and with the writers Wystan Hugh Auden (21 February 1907–29 September 1973) and Christopher Isherwood (26 August 1904–4 January 1986). In November 1945, Coldstream was a visiting teacher at Camberwell School of Arts & Crafts, and later its professor but in 1949, he returned to the Slade School of Fine Art as Principal and Professor of Fine Art. In the Queen's Birthday Honours List in 1956, Coldstream was appointed as a Knight Bachelor, and on 30 March 1961 he married his model Monica Mary Hoyer (1935-25 January 2018), daughter of Alfred Eric Monrad Hoyer, a journalist, by whom he had a son and two daughters. He retired from the Slade in 1975, but continued to paint until 1984, when his health was in marked decline. A charismatic figure in the London art world of the mid-twentieth century, William Menzies Coldstream died in the Royal Homeopathic Hospital in London on 18 February 1987. His connection with Suffolk is tenuous but he made regular visits to the Blyth estuary from 1968, usually staying at Southwold or Walberswick.

Royal Academy Exhibits
from Slade School of Fine Art, University College, Gower Street, London WC 1
1960 14 Mrs Winifred Burger. Purchased under the terms of the Chantrey Bequest
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Works by This Artist