Bernard Dunstan:
Interior: The Byam Shaw School
Framed (ref: 10564)
Oil on canvas

Tags: Bernard Dunstan oil artists at work 1.PORTRAIT OF AN ARTIST

Provenance: Elizabeth Riches, thence by descent

Literature: Llewellyn, Sacha, and Paul Liss. Portrait of an Artist. Liss Llewellyn, 2021, p.239.

Exhibited: New English Art Club. 

Charles Mahoney is the main figure in this interior scene, centre left. Rodney Burn and Elizabeth Riches can also be identified, the latter (to whom this interior scene belonged) holding up a painting in the background. 

Bernard Dunstan was a student at the school, and would later observe: 'I first met Charles Mahoney when I was teaching at the Byam Shaw art school in the sixties. He came to join the staff at the suggestion, I think, of Peter Greenham. The Byam Shaw had been run for many years by F.E. Jackson, a great teacher of classical draughtsmanship, who inspired a remarkable degree of loyalty and respect among his students. After his death the School continued along these his lines, though without his driving force; and as soon as Charles arrived it was clear to all, students and staff alike, that he had the same sort of strength as a teacher.' 

The Byam Shaw School of Art was absorbed by Central Saint Martins College of Arts and Design in 2010. In addition to Dunstan, the School's former students include Winifred Nicholson, Yinka Shonibare, and Mona Hatoum.