24 Facts About Roland Penrose

Sir Roland Algernon Penrose was an English artist, historian and poet.

Roland Penrose was a major promoter and collector of modern art and an associate of the surrealists in the United Kingdom.

Roland Penrose was the son of James Doyle Roland Penrose, a successful portrait painter, and Elizabeth Josephine Peckover, the daughter of Lord Peckover, a wealthy Quaker banker.

Roland Penrose was the third of four brothers; his older brother was the medical geneticist Lionel Penrose.

Roland Penrose grew up in a strict Quaker family in Watford and attended The Downs School, Colwall, Herefordshire, and then Leighton Park School, Reading, Berkshire.

Roland Penrose returned to London in 1936 and was one of the organisers of the London International Surrealist Exhibition, which led to the establishment of the English surrealist movement.

Roland Penrose settled in Hampstead, north London, where he was the centre of the community of avant-garde British artists and emigres who had settled there.

Roland Penrose commissioned a sculpture from Moore for his Hampstead house; the work became the focus of a press campaign against abstract art.

Roland Penrose came to Cornwall in June 1937, staying in his brother's home at Lambe Creek on the Truro River.

Roland Penrose was accompanied by a group of surrealist artists; his new lover Leonora Carrington, Max Ernst, Eileen Agar, Lee Miller, Man Ray, Edouard Mesens, Paul Eluard, and Joseph Bard.

In 1938, Roland Penrose organised a tour of Picasso's Guernica that raised funds for the Republican Government in Spain.

Roland Penrose told Guggenheim he loved an American woman in Egypt, and in her autobiography Guggenheim reports that she told him to "go to Egypt to get his ladylove".

Roland Penrose had an affair with the art conservator and botanist Gigi Crompton between 1945 and 1947.

Roland Penrose worked as senior lecturer at the Eastern Command Camouflage School in Norwich, and at the Camouflage Development and Training Centre at Farnham Castle, Surrey.

Roland Penrose's lectures were respected by both trainees and colleagues.

In 1941 Roland Penrose wrote the Home Guard Manual of Camouflage, which provided accurate guidance on the use of texture, not only colour, especially for protection from aerial photography, which was monochrome at that time.

Roland Penrose applied for a job at the Foreign Office, but was turned down because of a perceived security risk, possibly relating to the investigation of Lee Miller by MI5.

Roland Penrose organised the first two ICA exhibitions: 40 Years of Modern Art, which included many key works of Cubism, and 40,000 Years of Modern Art, which reflected his interest in African sculpture.

Roland Penrose was a presence at the ICA for 30 years; he produced books on the works of his friends Pablo Picasso, Max Ernst, Joan Miro, Man Ray and Antoni Tapies.

Roland Penrose was a trustee of the Tate Gallery; he organised a survey of Picasso's work there in 1960 and used his contacts to negotiate purchases of works by Picasso and the Surrealists at discounted prices.

Roland Penrose designed the landscaping around the house as a setting for works of modern sculpture.

Roland Penrose died on 23 April 1984, his late wife Lee Miller's birthday.

Roland Penrose was awarded the CBE in 1960, and he was knighted for his services to the visual arts in 1966.

An interview with Roland Penrose recorded in 1946 can be heard on the audio CD Surrealism Reviewed.