Edward Burra 1905-1976
Nymphs
pencil on paper
21 x 14 ins
stamped with signature

Literature
Andrew Causey, Edward Burra: Complete Catalogue, Phaidon, Oxford, 1985, no.D48, illustrated;
William Chappell (ed.)
Well, dearie! The Letters of Edward Burra, Gordon Fraser, London, 1985, illustrated.

Biography

A watercolourist, draughtsman and printmaker who was born into prosperous circumstances in London. While still at school Burra developed anaemia and rheumatic fever that terminated his formal education at an early stage. From 14 years old he devoted himself entirely to his drawing.

Burra studied at Chelsea School of Art from 1921-3, and the Royal College of Art from 1923-4. He had his first solo show at the Leicester Galleries in 1929. He was a member of Unit One in 1933 and showed with the English Surrealists later in the 1930s.

Despite his poor health, Burra travelled widely. Influences on his work, usually watercolour on a large scale in strong colour, were many: the dives of Harlem; the Spanish Civil War; English horror novels and books by older French and Spanish writers; and the work of artists such as Picasso, Wyndham Lewis and Dali. They prompted an art concerned with the bizarre and picaresque. Burra also designed for the stage, including the Camargo Society’s ballet Rio Grande and Sadler’s Wells’ Miracle in the Gorbals.

The Tate Gallery held a retrospective of Burra's work in 1973.

He lived near Rye, Sussex