SUTTON, PHILIP

SUTTON, PHILIP (1928– ), painter. Sutton was born in London, and studied at the Slade School of Fine Art where he subsequently taught. As a young man he was awarded scholarships for travel in France and Italy, and also spent some time in Israel. Between 1963 and 1965 he lived for two years on Fiji with his wife and four children. Sutton was influenced chiefly by Matisse and the German Expressionists. He was foremost a colorist and, apart from an early period of landscape painting, his chief subjects, like those of many Jewish artists, were firstly members of his family, and secondly the female nude. He was a bold draughtsman, particularly effective in his woodcuts, and a lover of hot, sensuous color, and was regarded as one of the most gifted English painters of his generation. He is represented in the Tate Gallery and leading museums throughout the world. He was elected a member of the Royal Academy in 1988. Model with Yellow Hair is one of his largest and most striking woodcuts. It was published in 1969 in a small, limited edition of 30 impressions. Woodcuts by Philip Sutton: 1950s–1970s appeared in 1998. (Charles Samuel Spencer)