A Life Reconstructed
Illustrator and artist Alan Sorrell didn’t have an easy life.
Source: ©Sir John Soane’s Museum
As a child, he spent much of his time confined to his bath chair, thanks to a suspected heart condition; leading to a lifetime of shyness, compounded by the early death of his beloved father.
Source: ©Sir John Soane’s Museum
By all accounts something of a withdrawn chap, Sorrell channelled his energies into art, most famously creating a number of illustrated archaeological and historical recreations.
A new show opening at the end of the month at London’s Sir John Soane’s Museum looks to uncover more about Sorrell, showcasing a number of never before exhibited pieces from Sorrell’s Neo Romantic period.
Source: ©Sir John Soane’s Museum
These will be on display alongside his paintings and sketches as a muralist and his production as a war artist, as well as well as his widely known works as an illustrator of landscapes and figure subjects.
Source: ©Sir John Soane’s Museum
Alan Sorrell’s son, Richard, says, ‘My father was a prolific draughtsman and painter, who is perhaps known for the historical “reconstruction” drawings of castles and abbeys, and prehistoric sites, seen as they would have appeared in their heyday.
‘One of the aims of this exhibition is to put the reconstruction drawings in the context of his much larger oeuvre, and to demonstrate that all of his work was the product of an extraordinarily vivid imagination, that could breathe life into a wide variety of subject matter’.
Source: ©Sir John Soane’s Museum
Among the highlights of the exhibition are panels from Working Boats from Around the British Coast, a mural created for the 1951 Festival of Britain.
Source: ©Sir John Soane’s Museum
The mural was commissioned for the Nelson Bar of the HMS Campania, an aircraft carrier that served as an exhibition hall, and the panels will be displayed for the exhibition alongside preparatory drawings and sketches.
Alan Sorrell – A Life Reconstructed runs from 25 October – 25 January 2014 at Sir John Soane’s Museum: 13 Lincoln’s Inn Fields, London WC2A
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