My father was the composer Edmund Rubbra and my mother, Antoinette, was a violinist. Their home, where I was born in 1938, was a flint cottage that lay in a secluded valley in the Chiltern Hills. I began to draw the surroundings of my home and then during the summer of 1949 I travelled with my mother on a seminal visit to Florence.
Benedict drawing 1949
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Valley cottage behind a cherry tree 1949. Water colour on paper 46x65cm
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The impact of seeing the paintings of Fra Angelico and Masaccio and the work of Donatello and Brunelleschi was the source of my search for an answer to the mystery of their ability to achieve with timeless poetry a perfect balance between control and freedom.
I went school at Christ’s Hospital where Nell Todd taught art and immediately I had a friend and teacher who helped and inspired me through my school days. I then gained a place at the Slade School of Fine Art and received my diploma in 1960.
Tessa and I married in 1964 and soon after we moved to the home where I was brought up. We kept a few sheep and chickens and a donkey on the hillside behind the cottage. In the garden we planted fruit trees and grew vegetables and shared this setting with our two young children.
I began a career as a portraitist in 1970 when a ten-year period of teaching in art schools came to an end. This gave me the freedom to experiment, and in order to show all aspects of my work I built a studio and gallery as an annex to the cottage. Exhibitions of new work were organized every two years until 2001 when I moved with Tessa to start a new life in Devon.
I went school at Christ’s Hospital where Nell Todd taught art and immediately I had a friend and teacher who helped and inspired me through my school days. I then gained a place at the Slade School of Fine Art and received my diploma in 1960.
Tessa and I married in 1964 and soon after we moved to the home where I was brought up. We kept a few sheep and chickens and a donkey on the hillside behind the cottage. In the garden we planted fruit trees and grew vegetables and shared this setting with our two young children.
I began a career as a portraitist in 1970 when a ten-year period of teaching in art schools came to an end. This gave me the freedom to experiment, and in order to show all aspects of my work I built a studio and gallery as an annex to the cottage. Exhibitions of new work were organized every two years until 2001 when I moved with Tessa to start a new life in Devon.
Benedict Tessa Toby and Tabitha and the newly built studio and gallery 1970
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Benedict today
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The core of my work for the last forty years has centered on developing the process of making three-dimensional structures based on ideas principally drawn from the landscape and architecture of the Italian Renaissance. These structures are destined to become the point of departure for paintings and drawings.
Publications:
Painting Children, studio Vista, London, Watson-Guptil, NY, 1968
Draw Portraits, Pitman, 1980
Painting Children, The Herbert Press, London, Watson-Guptil, NY 1993
Benedict Rubbra Paintings1958-1998, published for the 60th birthday retrospective.
Benedict Rubbra A Point of Balance, Halstar 2008
Publications:
Painting Children, studio Vista, London, Watson-Guptil, NY, 1968
Draw Portraits, Pitman, 1980
Painting Children, The Herbert Press, London, Watson-Guptil, NY 1993
Benedict Rubbra Paintings1958-1998, published for the 60th birthday retrospective.
Benedict Rubbra A Point of Balance, Halstar 2008
Martin Phipps 1982. Oil on canvas 80x55cm
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Tatty Theo 1980. Oil on board 80x62cm
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Exhibitions:
1959. Harrow School of Art
1962. The Nuffield Foundation
1965. One-man exhibition, Woodstock Gallery, London. One-man exhibition Marlborough College.
1967, Leicester Galleries, London
1968, The Dicken Moore Exhibition
1971. The first of the biennial exhibitions at Valley Cottage
1979. One-man exhibition, Campbell & Franks Gallery, London
1980-1984. Royal Academy Summer Exhibitions
1982. King Street Galleries, London
1989. 10th exhibition at Valley Cottage opened by Sir Oliver Millar, Keeper of the Queen’s pictures
1992. One-man exhibition, Light and Space, Barbican Centre, London
1995. Exhibited working models and paintings, City Museum, Hereford
1998. Major retrospective exhibition, County Museum, Aylesbury
1998. Exhibition of lino-cut prints, Venezia Viva, Venice
2001. Exhibited with West Country Artists, Messums Fine art, London
2009. One-man exhibition, The Art Room Topsham
2011. One-man exhibition, The Art Room Topsham
2012. One-man exhibition, The Art Room Topsham
2014. One-man exhibition, The Art Room Topsham
2015. Retrospctive exhibition, Eye to Image, Royal Albert Memorial Museum, Exeter
Private collection in Great Britain, Eire, USA, Italy, New Zealand
Public Collections: Nuffield Foundation, Contemporary Arts Association, ILO Geneva, WMO Geneva,
Il Museo d’Arte Moderna, Anticoli Corrado, Rome
1959. Harrow School of Art
1962. The Nuffield Foundation
1965. One-man exhibition, Woodstock Gallery, London. One-man exhibition Marlborough College.
1967, Leicester Galleries, London
1968, The Dicken Moore Exhibition
1971. The first of the biennial exhibitions at Valley Cottage
1979. One-man exhibition, Campbell & Franks Gallery, London
1980-1984. Royal Academy Summer Exhibitions
1982. King Street Galleries, London
1989. 10th exhibition at Valley Cottage opened by Sir Oliver Millar, Keeper of the Queen’s pictures
1992. One-man exhibition, Light and Space, Barbican Centre, London
1995. Exhibited working models and paintings, City Museum, Hereford
1998. Major retrospective exhibition, County Museum, Aylesbury
1998. Exhibition of lino-cut prints, Venezia Viva, Venice
2001. Exhibited with West Country Artists, Messums Fine art, London
2009. One-man exhibition, The Art Room Topsham
2011. One-man exhibition, The Art Room Topsham
2012. One-man exhibition, The Art Room Topsham
2014. One-man exhibition, The Art Room Topsham
2015. Retrospctive exhibition, Eye to Image, Royal Albert Memorial Museum, Exeter
Private collection in Great Britain, Eire, USA, Italy, New Zealand
Public Collections: Nuffield Foundation, Contemporary Arts Association, ILO Geneva, WMO Geneva,
Il Museo d’Arte Moderna, Anticoli Corrado, Rome