Alfred Daniels, RWS RBA
Alfred Daniels was born in London's East End in 1924. In the late 1940's he studied at the Royal College of Art, London.
As a young graduate he toured Florence, Venice, Ravenna and Siena where he was deeply impressed by the Italian Primitives. His award winning murals (1952-54) at Hammersmith Town Hall depicting life on the Thames are regarded as a modern classic. An example of his early painting rightly compared to the work of the great American artist Ben Shahn, was included in a recent survey of 1950's British paintings at London's Barbican Centre. Alfred Daniels spoke of his paintings being concerned with the ‘Vanishing Scene’. His paintings are carefully constructed and he wrote, ‘A subject is not sufficient to hold the interest for long. Inside the painting is an infrastructure where the forms, colours and shapes must work together with the paint to create harmony and tension so that the surface will reveal the secrets only after a long time.’
He was elected a member of The Royal Watercolour Society in 1973, The Royal Society of British Artists in 1983 and elected Keeper of The Royal Society in 1991. Alfred Daniels was a lifelong painter and was also known as writer, teacher and lecturer. He died peacefully in his sleep, after a battle with cancer, at the age of 90 years on 27 April 2015.
As a young graduate he toured Florence, Venice, Ravenna and Siena where he was deeply impressed by the Italian Primitives. His award winning murals (1952-54) at Hammersmith Town Hall depicting life on the Thames are regarded as a modern classic. An example of his early painting rightly compared to the work of the great American artist Ben Shahn, was included in a recent survey of 1950's British paintings at London's Barbican Centre. Alfred Daniels spoke of his paintings being concerned with the ‘Vanishing Scene’. His paintings are carefully constructed and he wrote, ‘A subject is not sufficient to hold the interest for long. Inside the painting is an infrastructure where the forms, colours and shapes must work together with the paint to create harmony and tension so that the surface will reveal the secrets only after a long time.’
He was elected a member of The Royal Watercolour Society in 1973, The Royal Society of British Artists in 1983 and elected Keeper of The Royal Society in 1991. Alfred Daniels was a lifelong painter and was also known as writer, teacher and lecturer. He died peacefully in his sleep, after a battle with cancer, at the age of 90 years on 27 April 2015.
