Sir William Menzies Coldstream, CBE was an English realist painter and a long-standing art teacher.
15 Facts About William Coldstream
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William Coldstream grew up in London, where he was privately educated, then studied at the Slade School of Fine Art between 1926 and 1929.
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In 1934, William Coldstream joined the GPO Film Unit to make documentary films with John Grierson.
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In 1937, with some financial support from Kenneth Clark, William Coldstream returned to painting on a full-time basis.
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At the start of World War II William Coldstream enlisted in the Royal Artillery before transferring to the Royal Engineers.
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William Coldstream was stationed in Cairo with an Indian transport unit and painted four portraits of individuals there.
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William Coldstream painted Helen Darbishire in her role as principal of Somerville College, Oxford.
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In 1952, he became a CBE In the Queen's Birthday Honours 1956 William Coldstream was appointed as a Knight Bachelor.
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William Coldstream was Chairman of the British Film Institute from 1964 to 1971.
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William Coldstream retired from the Slade School in 1975, and continued to paint until 1984, when his health was in marked decline.
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William Coldstream died in the Royal Homeopathic Hospital in London on 18 February 1987.
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William Coldstream's cousin, Nicolas William Coldstream, was a leading archaeologist and academic.
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William Coldstream was committed to painting directly from life; he once remarked, "I lose interest unless I let myself be ruled by what I see".
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The surfaces of William Coldstream's paintings carry many small horizontal and vertical markings, where he recorded these coordinates so that they could be verified against reality.
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William Coldstream's subjects include still-life, landscapes, portraits, and the female nude.