Eurich at 80, Early Drawings and Recent Paintings

'Eurich at 80' was also shown at The Manor House Museum and Art Gallery in Ilkley, West Yorkshire from 15 April - 15 May 1983

Introduction by David Brown in the "Eurich at 80' catalogue published by The Fine Art Society

Richard Eurich has been drawing and painting for more than 60 years and celebrates his 80th birthday on 14 March. Appropriately this exhibition, as well as being shown at the Fine Art Society, will also be seen in Yorkshire, where he was born and first attended art school before studying at the Slade in the mid 1920s. There he spent most of his time drawing, not only from the model, but also from Greek, Indian, Egyptian and Etruscan sculptures in the British Museum which played a part in forming his linear drawing style in the next few years. His first one-man exhibition, of drawings, at the Goupil Gallery in 1929, took place partly as a result of the enthusiasm of that great supporter of young English artists both before and after the First World War, Sir Edward Marsh, and of Eric Gill.

From 1930 Eurich began to paint much more. As a youth he had become aware of the sea as a subject for art when he was taken to Whitby by one of his school teachers and his wife, and by visits to the Chesil Beach in Dorset while on holiday with cousins in Weymouth. This interest was reinforced by meeting Christopher Wood in 1929 and seeing his pictures of boats and small fishing ports. Eurich painted views of ports in Cornwall, Devon and Dorset in the ‘thirties and after their marriage in 1934 he and his wife, Mavis Pope, an art teacher, moved to Dibden Purlieu on the edge of the New Forest and within easy reach of the sea; they are still there after nearly 50 years.

During the Second World War Eurich became an Official War Artist, receiving an honorary commission in the Royal Marines, perhaps inevitably painting scenes involving the sea, mostly of ships but one or two of air combats. Some are great panoramic views showing many ships, of convoys or the evacuation of the British Army from Dunkirk. Several of these are in the National Maritime Museum and the Imperial War Museum; one of the most poignant, Survivors from a Torpedoed Ship, in the Tate Gallery, shows simply three exhausted sailors clinging to the keel of a capsized lifeboat.

After 5 or 6 years painting almost nothing but sea subjects, at the end of the War Eurich understandably turned to dry land for themes in his work. He painted landscapes, some in Yorkshire. Childhood memories of street scenes in Bradford were used asa springboard for pictures in which people appear a shade weird. This strain has continued in some of the beach scenes from the 60s and later. We are reminded how strange everyone can appear at times, particularly when we think we are unobserved.

Eurich has painted many pictures during his life and most are on the walls of people’s houses giving pleasure to those who live with them. Others have cause for gratitude for his activities including many students taught by Eurich at the Camberwell School of Art where he was a part-time teacher for about 20 years from 1949. He also served for 35 years or so as Chairman of the Committee which decides on purchases for Southampton Art Gallery made with the income of the Smith Bequest; in this role he was both efficient and broadminded supporting acquisitions in idioms being very different from his own. In 1950 when the gallery was without a curator  - one had left and a new appointment was yet to be made ‐ Eurich initiated the purchase of Stanley Spencer’s The Resurrection with the Raising of jairus’s Daughter; without his prompt action the picture would not be in Southampton.

The present exhibition includes a group of early drawings similar to those shown at the Goupil Gallery in 1929. There is also a number of paintings of the past few years, some of the sea, others of Hampshire and Yorkshire; Eurich travels to Yorkshire each year and, among other places, visits llkley where he lived with his family while at Bradford School of Art.

We wish Richard Eurich Many Happy Returns of the Day, and many years of painting landscapes, seascapes and no doubt the occasional picture which will show us what an odd lot
 we all are.

David Brown February 1983