Norman Wilkinson (1878 - 1971)

Norman Wilkinson CBE was a British artist who predominately worked in oils. He was known for his exquisite marine paintings, as well as his illustrative posters and wartime camoufleur.

Wilkinson was born in Cambridge, England. His early artistic training was in Cornwall and at Southsea School of Art, where he also learnt to paint with seascape painter Louis Grier. He then travelled to Paris to build an academic training of figurative painting, but swiftly moved back to the maritime subject matter.

Due to his fascination with the sea, Wilkinson travelled extensively to locations such as Spain, Germany, Italy, Malta, Greece, Aden, Bahamas, United States, Canada, and Brazil and by the 1900s he was an established marine artist.

In 1906, Wilkinson was elected to the Royal Institute of Painters in Watercolours (RI). He was elected Honorable Marine Painter to the Royal Yacht Squadron in 1919. He was a member of the Royal Society of British Artists, Royal Institute of Oil Painters, Royal Society of Marine Artists, and Royal Scottish Society of Painters in Watercolours. He was appointed a Commander of the British Empire (CBE) in 1948.

His work has been represented in a wide variety of museums and galleries, such as the Royal Academy, National Maritime Museum and the Tryon Gallery.

Alongside his reputation as a marine artist, Wilkinson flourishedin his career as a painter of river and fishing scenes – both in oils and watercolour. Painted with admirable accuracy these paintings record most of the notable pools and stretches of rivers in the UK.

The Tryon Gallery exhibited his work almost every alternate year between 1961 and 1974 and he has continued to be represented in both our marine and fishing exhibitions over the years.