John Craxton (1922 – 2009, British)

John Craxton (1922–2009, British)

The Neo-Romantic artist, John Craxton, photographed by Felix Mann, 1948

John Craxton (1922 – 2009, British), was a Neo-Romantic artist, a term he quite disliked, preferring to be called a “kind of Arcadian”. Born into a musical family, he attended seven different schools and then went to Paris to study at the Académie Julian and the Académie de la Grande Chaumière until the outbreak of WWII. After his return to London, he was rejected for military service because of pleurisy, so attended Goldsmiths College. He held his first exhibition in 1942. After the war, he traveled widely and came to settle on Crete. He was a ballet and opera designer as well as a book illustrator. In 1993 he was named a Royal Academician (RA).

Craxton, a friend and roommate of Lucien Freud, depicts his cats in a style reminiscent of Gerhard Marcks. Abstractly defined, the cats are shown in typical cat behavior. Craxton must have been a cat lover.

Cat and Snail, 1965

A Young Greek Boy, 1950

Marco the Cat, 1948

Cat & Butterflies

Cat on a Chair, 1922

Cat on red background

Still Life with Cat and Child, 1959

8-Detail John Craxton - Still Life with Cat and Child

Detail – Still Life with Cat and Child

Sleeping cats, 1955

Cat

Cretan Cats , 2003

Cat and Ball

Cat and Butterfly

Cat and Goldfish Bowl 1975

Two Cats

Cat and Snail

Two cats Linocut, printed in colours, on wove, signed and inscribed ‘For Doby’ in black ink

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