Rodney Gladwell (British, 1928 – 1979)

Aubergines, 1959

Signed and dated ‘Gladwell 59’ (lower left)

Oil on board

79.1/2 x 31.1/2 in. (202 x 80 cm.) including frame

Painter Rodney Gladwell was born in 1928 in Didcot, Oxfordshire, England. He studied art in Paris at the Académie Colarossi from 1949-50, before returning to England and representing Great Britain at the Hamburg Exhibition in Germany in 1958. His work was exhibited in London at venues including the Archer Gallery, the Molton Gallery (by the dealer Lucy Wertheim who owned his work), the O’Hana Gallery, the Lefevre Gallery and the Piccadilly Gallery, and he also showed in Paris and in Zurich. In 1959 he created work for the Georgian Club in London, as well as designing an exhibition combining modern fabrics with paintings for the Cotton Board of Great Britain, which was shown in Manchester before touring to Australia and New Zealand. During the 1960s, he was commissioned to paint extensive murals for Sussex University, who hosted a retrospective in 1962-3. Gladwell also participated in mixed shows at Ben Uri Gallery in 1970 and (posthumously) in 1983, and in his later years worked in Japan, Africa, and in North and South America. He specialised in largescale paintings that moved between figuration and abstraction, frequently centred on female nudes. Rodney Gladwell died in 1979 in Berkshire, England. His paintings can be found in UK collections including the Arts Council of Great Britain, the Towner Gallery, Eastbourne, and the University of Sussex, as well as in the University of Johannesburg in South Africa. In 2016 a book by Jens Neubert, entitled Rodney Gladwell: Gods Go Running (1928-1979), was published by Hatje Cantz Publishing.