Henry Carr

Henry Marvell Carr, RA RP RBA, (16 August 1894 – 16 March 1970) was a successful British landscape and portrait painter who served as a war artist during World War II

Carr was born in Leeds and trained at Leeds College of Art and the Royal College of Art, under William Rothenstein During World War I he served in France with the Royal Field Artillery After the war his work was exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1921, in other British galleries and in Paris He painted portraits of, among others, Aldous Huxley and Olivia Davis and landscapes of the English south coast

At the outbreak of World War II, Carr was offered commissions by the War Artists' Advisory Committee to paint scenes of bomb damage in London, both to landmarks such as St Pancras Station and St Clement Danes Church and to housing in the suburbs An exhibition of his war paintings was held at the National Gallery in July 1940 Carr's own home and studio were destroyed in the Blitz A trip on a British merchant navy ship resulted in the paintings The Merchant Navy:The Chain Locker and Merchant Seaman Fireman In 1943 Carr became a full-time, salaried, War Office Artist and travelled first to North Africa and then to Italy As well as portraits of Allied soldiers and officers, he painted military actions and landscapes in Algiers, Tunis, Cassino and Sessa in Italy In 1944, he witnessed, and painted, an eruption of Mount Vesuvius Later in 1944 he left Italy after becoming ill

After the war, Carr resumed his career as a portrait painter In 1948 he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Portrait Painters and in 1956 he was awarded the Gold Medal at the Paris Salon In 1952, Carr published the book Portrait Painting Between 1957 and 1959 he produced a series of fourteen murals, showing the stages of textile production for the Salts Mill Carr taught at Beckenham Art School for some seventeen years and became Head of the School Carr was a member of the Royal Society of British Artists He was elected an Associate Member of the Royal Academy in 1957 and a full member in 1966 and continued to exhibit there until his death Some seventy works by him are held by the Imperial War Museum
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