ANGLO-FRENCH ART CENTRE
The Anglo-French Art Centre, sometimes the Anglo-French Art School, at 29 Elm Tree Road in St John's Wood, North London, the site of the former St John's Wood School of Art, was founded in 1946 by Alfred Rozelaar-Green (14 July 1917-7 July 2013) who spent two years studying physics, mathematics, and engineering at Cambridge University before leaving for London and the Central School of Arts and Crafts in 1937. The following year, Alfred went to Paris to study Fine Art at the Académie Julian and under the tutelage of the social-realist painter Marcel Gromaire (24 July 1892-11 April 1971). While in Paris, he met his first wife Nita Bassetti, an artist's model who had posed for Matisse, and together they had three sons. Green set about revolutionising British post-war art education by inviting artists from France and elsewhere to exhibit, teach and lecture. These included such luminaries as André Lhote (5 July 1885-24 January 1962), Jean Lurçat (1 July 1892-6 January 1966), Fernand Léger (4 February 1881–17 August 1955), Antoni Clavé (5 April 1913–31 August 2005) and Germaine Richier (16 September 1902–31 July 1959). The centre maintained the old St John’s Wood Art School’s practice of inviting famous artists of the day to teach, to criticise the students’ work and to present prizes. Suffolk artists who studied and exhibited at the Anglo-French Art School include Eileen Bell, Tom Mallin and his wife Muriel Mallin other exhibitors include Jankel Adler (26 July 1895-25 April 1949), Robert Colquhoun (20 December 1914-20 September 1962), and Robert MacBryde (5 December 1913-6 May 1966). By 1951 Green had spent all his money, and the Arts Council withdrew its grant, and the centre closed when Alfred went to live in France until his death on 7 July 2013.