Adrian Maurice Daintrey, RWA (1902–1988) was a British portrait and landscape painter.
Life
Adrian Daintrey was born in Balham, London on 23 June 1902, the youngest of three children of Ernest Daintrey, a solicitor and his wife Lucy Mary (née Blagdon). He was educated at Charterhouse School, where he developed his artistic skills, at the Slade School of Fine Art from 1920 to 1924, and at the École du Louvre and L'Académie de la Grande Chaumière, Paris. He gathered a wide circle of friends including the artists Augustus John, Nina Hamnett and Rex Whistler. The novel, The Acceptance World by Anthony Powell novel, is dedicated to him.
He shared his first exhibition with Paul Nash at Dorothy Warren's Gallery in 1928. During the Second World War, he served widely abroad. After the war he held shows at his studio to promote his work. He worked for Punch from 1953 to 1961 as the art critic. He illustrated Elizabeth David's Summer Cooking and several of her other titles, sometimes working with John Minton. From the late 1960s he taught part-time at the City and Guilds of London Art School. His illustrated memoir I Must Say offers a vivid portrayal of London life among artistic and bohemian circles in the 1920s and 30s.
He died at the Charterhouse almshouse where he had lived as a Brother from 1984 until his death.
Exhibitions
- South London Art Gallery
- Michael Parkin Fine Art
- Sally Hunter Fine Art
Collections
- 15 artworks by or after Adrian Daintrey at the Art UK site
- British Museum (1 drawing)
- Imperial War Museum (9 works)
- National Portrait Gallery (1 portrait)
Legacy
Hilary Spurling records that the central character in Anthony Powell's 1933 novel From a View to a Death is "a pushy young painter, an irrepressible opportunist of colossal nerve and cheek called Arthur Zouch, easily recognizable to friends as Adrian Daintrey." The character is invited to the Passengers' country house to paint family portraits, and in return he seduces the young women of the house until the father, furious, sends him out to hunt on a dangerous horse, and Zouch falls, breaking his neck.
References
- The International Authors and Writers Who's Who, 1976, Ernest Kay, pg 138
- Who's Who In Art 1974, Bernard Dolman, pg 111
- ^ Hunter, Sally (2004). "Daintrey, Adrian Maurice". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/64240. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)
- Dolman, Bernard (1980). Who's who in Art. Art Trade Press. ISBN 9780900083082.
- Jay, Mike. (2013) "Who Were the Dedicatees of Powell’s Works?" The Anthony Powell Society Newsletter.50 (spring): 9-10.
- I Must Say, Pub. Chatto and Windus, London 1963
- London: A History in Paintings and Illustrations, Stephen Porter, 2014, pg 171
- "Drawing". British Museum. Retrieved 28 November 2017.
- "Adrian Daintrey". Imperial War Museum. Retrieved 28 November 2017.
- "Adrian Maurice Daintrey". National Portrait Gallery. Retrieved 28 November 2017.
- Spurling, Hilary (2017). Anthony Powell: Dancing to the Music of Time. Penguin Books. p. 145. ISBN 978-0-241-25655-8.