Painter of abstracts, portraits, still-life, landscapes and figures in oils, gouache, watercolours and pen and wash. Born in Tenerife, he was brought to England in 1918 and lived in New Jersey, USA and studied in Rome and at the Accademia Rosso, Florence.

From 1928 to 1931 he attended the Slade School and in 1931 visited Madrid where he was influenced by Ribera. He exhibited with the London Group from 1932 (member 1933), and between 1933 and 1936 led the Objective Abstraction Group, which included Geoffrey Tibble and Graham Bell, exhibiting with them at The Zwemmer Gallery in 1934.

Between 1937 and 1940 he was associated with the painters of the Euston Road School, where he befriended Lawrence Gowing, and in 1940 he held his first solo exhibition at the Redfern Gallery.

An official war artist in 1943, in 1957 he resigned from the RA and the RCA and subsequently worked in France and in New York. He exhibited in London galleries including the Redfern from 1940 to 1961, The Leicester Galleries, at the RA from 1940 (ARA 1944, RA 1954-7, re-elected 1979) and in New York galleries including Karsten Schubert.

His work is represented in the Tate Gallery. Between 1948 and 1957 he was Professor of Painting at the RCA and he was awarded a CBE in 1953. From 1964 to 1968 he was joint editor of Art and Literature and in 1970 became a Fellow of University College, London. He married Elinor Bellingham Smith in 1931 and Anne Dunn in 1960. His abstract work of the 1930’s was influenced by late Monet, Cezanne and Turner, but he then turned to realistic, tonal and figurative images until 1956/7 when he started to paint both abstracts and landscapes which reflected his interest in Chinese painting and the work of Newman and Kelly.

In the 1970’s he began a series of perceptive portraits and still-lifes painted in an economic style, a rich but subdued palette and with great refinement of presentation.