David Bomberg

1 portrait

© National Portrait Gallery, London

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David Bomberg

by David Bomberg
charcoal and wash, 1931
19 1/2 in. x 12 3/4 in. (495 mm x 324 mm)
Purchased, 1970
Primary Collection
NPG 4821

Sitterback to top

Artistback to top

Linked publicationsback to top

  • Rideal, Liz, Insights: Self-portraits, 2005, p. 96 Read entry

    Using an eraser to enhance the chiaroscuro of this black charcoal, Bomberg depicts himself fixing the viewer with a disdainful gaze as he smokes his cigarette. The signature is energetic, spiky, concise; a bravura finale to an explosive drawing. Between 1945 and 1953 Bomberg taught at Borough Polytechnic, where Frank Auerbach (b. 1931) and Leon Kossoff (b. 1922) were his students. Kossoff remembers watching Bomberg at work: ‘Once I watched him draw over a student’s drawing. I saw the flow of form. I saw the likeness to the sitter appear. It seemed an encounter with what was already there and I’ll never forget it.’

  • Rogers, Malcolm, Master Drawings from the National Portrait Gallery, 1993 (accompanying the exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery from 5 August to 23 October 1994), p. 171
  • Saywell, David; Simon, Jacob, Complete Illustrated Catalogue, 2004, p. 64

Linked displays and exhibitionsback to top

Events of 1931back to top

Current affairs

Sailors at the Invergordon naval base mutiny in response to pay cuts. The cuts of up to 25% were part of the government's attempt to deal with the Great Depression by reducing public spending. Sailors protested by holding meetings and refusing orders.
Dr Harold Moody founds the League of Coloured Peoples, lobbying for equal rights for black people in Britain and for international civil rights.

Art and science

The modern tube map is introduced. Harry Beck's design was unique in following the properties of a circuit diagram rather than the geographical location of the stations.
The Vic-Wells Ballet company is founded by Dame Ninette de Valois and housed by Lilian Baylis at Sadler's Wells Theatre. It was granted a Royal Charter in 1957 and became the Royal Ballet.

International

The Second Spanish Republic is established. Following an election dominated by the Republicans, King Alfonso XIII abdicated and a new constitution was drawn up.
The Statute of Westminster grants legislative equality to the self-governing Dominions of the British Empire. The Statue decreed that the British Government could no longer make ordinary law for the dominions unless it was at their request and with their consent.

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