PITCHFORTH, Roland Vivian

Roland Vivian Pitchforth RA ARWS (1895–1982) was an English painter, teacher and an official British war artist during the Second World War.He excelled at watercolours and in later years concentrated on landscapes, seascapes and paintings of atmospheric effects. He studied at Leeds School of Art in 1914 and 1915 before joining the armed forces. He served in World War One, service which left him with lifelong hearing damage. After the war, Pitchforth returned to his studies in Leeds where he won a scholarship that allowed him to study at the Royal College of Art from 1920 to 1925. After graduation he took a teaching job at Camberwell School of Art and, from 1926 to 1929, a similar post at Clapham School of Art. Pitchforth exhibited works at a number of London galleries and joined the London Group in 1929. He taught at St Martins School of Art from 1930 to 1937 and then at the Royal College of Art until the outbreak of the Second World War, when he worked for Thw War Artist’s Advisory Committee. After the war he returned to Britain Pitchforth resumed a teaching career, holding posts at Chelsea Polytechnic, Camberwell and St. Martins until he retired from the Sir John Cass College of Art in 1974.