John Bratby

John Randall Bratby RA, LG, ARCA (Lond) (1928-1992)

was a very-well known painter of portraits, figure subjects, still life and landscape mainly in oil, noted especially as a founder of the Kitchen Sink School of realism in the 1950s. He was born in Wimbledon, south-west London and studied art at Kingston Art School 1949-50 under William Fairclough and then continued his studies at the Royal College of Art 1951-54 under Weight, Buhler, de Grey, Moynihan, Minton and Spear. He married fellow artist Jean Cooke in 1953 though they divorced in 1977. His second wife Patti featured in many of his later paintings. Bratby exhibited at the Royal Academy on many occasions from 1954 and he was elected ARA in 1959 and RA in 1971 and showed also at the Venice Biennale 1956. His work is represented in many public collections. He lived in Blackheath for much of his life and settled in Hastings in East Sussex in 1979.

Current Works

John Bratby – The Pier, Eastbourne