CRONYN, Hugh Verschoyle

1905 - 1996

Hugh Verschoyle Cronyn was born in Vancouver, Canada on 30 April 1905, son of Verschoyle Francis Cronyn (born 1866) and his wife Mabel Margaret née Philpot, who married at Vancouver on 27 April 1901. Hugh started attending drawing evening classes at Ontario School of Art 1928-1929, whilst working for the Anglo-American Tea Co. of Toronto between 1923 and 1928 and then began painting in the Toronto studio of Francis Hans Johnston (called Frank, and later Franz), (1888-1949), a founder member of the Canadian Group of Seven School of Landscape painters. In 1929, Hugh spent a year at the Art Students League, New York and in 1930 went to the American School of Fine Art at Fontainebleau in France and then to Paris studying Life & Composition with Jean Despujols (1886-1965) followed by painting for two years,1931-1933 with Cubist painter André L'Hote (1885-1962). Travels through France, Italy, Germany, and Spain occupied the whole of 1934, and the following year he came to London, working as a freelance painter with a circle of talented friends along the Thames at Hammersmith. In 1939, he enlisted in the Thames River Emergency Service, then in the Royal Navy, being commissioned in 1940 as Lieutenant Commander RNVR, being awarded the George Medal for bravery in bomb-disposal. He married at St Nicholas Church, Chiswick in 1942, Jean Pamela Harris (died 23 October 2003) and they had two daughters. Art Director at the Architectural Association School, London 1946-1949 and in 1949 appointed tutor of painting at Colchester School of Art, when he moved to 16 Bear Street, Nayland, Suffolk with his wife and daughters. In 1960, he and his wife purchased an old farmhouse holiday home in Quercy, Southwest France, where Hugh was able to indulge his passion for landscape painting. In 1975 they moved from their then home, Lower House Farm, Stoke-by-Nayland, Suffolk back to Hammersmith Reach on the Thames, from where he painted until his death in 1996. A lyrical, passionate painter, who adored the Thames pageant with its hourly changing scenery. He exhibited at the Royal Academy Summer Exhibition 1945-1986; Royal West of England Academy; The Minories, Colchester; Nancy Poole's Studio, Toronto; Gainsborough's House Gallery, Sudbury; Digby Gallery, Colchester; Yehudi Menuhin School, Hotel de Ville, Montcuq; Sandford Gallery, Covent Garden; Bury St Edmund's Art Gallery; Phoenix Gallery, Kingston 1987; Phoenix Art Gallery, Lavenham 1985-1990; Phoenix Gallery, London 1991; Air Gallery, Dover Street, London 1998; Patisserie Valerie, Knightsbridge 1999 and Highgate Fine Art, Highgate Village 2001. His paintings are in numerous public and private collections in Canada, France, Sweden, the United Kingdom and the United States of America.

Royal Academy Exhibits
from 33 St Peter's Square, West London
1945 714 Low Water, Hammersmith Reach
1948 493 Country Study
from Appletree Cottage, Castle Hill, Dedham, Essex
1949 363 Rowfant Mill-pond, Sussex
1950 399 Anna
1952 256 Rooks over the Stour
1953 361 Dedham Heath
         366 Family Group
         411 Garn Dolbenmaen
from Lower Farm House, Stoke by Clare, Suffolk
1955 233 Snow Scene, Suffolk
         429 Garden with Praying Figure
         609 Anna Reading
1957 410 Stoke-by-Nayland
         513 Anna as ‘Amy’
from 27 Flanders Road, Chiswick, London W4
1959 337 Ruined Church, Birch, Essex
         572 Cornfield
1960 455 Cottage Interior
1965 176 The Thames at Richmond
         184 Havengore Army Festival at Pier
1966 1293 Blue Spring
         1318 Summer Grass
1967 910 The Spring
from 16 Bear Street, Nayland, Suffolk
1968 1124 Grotto
from Studio 3, St Peter's Wharf, Hammersmith Terrace, London W6
1980 1077 River Window
1986 894 Japanese Vase and Work Table

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Works by This Artist