Geoffrey Hamilton Rhoades (1898-1980)

Painter in oil, watercolour, pen and ink and sepia, and teacher. Born in London, Rhoades studied painting at Clapham Art School 1915-7, then after World War I service in the Mercantile Marine attended the Slade School of Fine Art under Henry Tonks 1919-23. His landsapes, figure studies and flower paintings reflect his love of natural history and interest in the classical world. When Rhoades left the Slade Tonks said: "You've something I haven't - imagination," and Rhoades' inner life did nourish his work throughout his career. His pictures are unmistakeably English in their understatedness. In the mid-1920s Rhoades completed murals and other work for the owners of Stoke Rochford House, in Lincolnshire. He then held a series of teaching posts, notably at the Ruskin School of Drawing, Oxford, 1953-72. He exhibited at the NEAC, RI and Goupil Gallery and had one-man shows at Maltzahn Gallery, Ashmolean Museum, Mall Galleries and Sally Hunte