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Published: 27 January, 2011
by GERALD ISAAMAN

Peter de Francia has achieved the rarest of successes for an artist – he has been celebrated in his lifetime 

ARTISTS are only rarely celebrated in their life time. Too often, the decades roll by before 

a genius is truly recognised and the value of their work shoots skywards, from pennies into pounds with noughts on.

So how delightful it is to report that yesterday (Wednesday) Peter de Francia, an iconic figure in British post-war art, was taken by wheelchair to Tate Britain for a special luncheon with friends to mark his 90th birthday, which fell the day before.

The event was laid on by Sir Nicholas Serota, the gallery’s Hampstead-born director, who has also re-hung one of de Francia’s most powerful paintings, “The Bombing of Sakiet”, in a new display.

“And they have done it so marvellously,” de Francia’s wife Alix told me. “It really glows on a wall all by itself in a special group of paintings by modern British artists.”

Indeed, it is a reminder of the fact that de Francia, now regaining his strength following a time in hospital, is himself a heroic figure whose career went from outsider to establishment insider when he became professor of the school of painting at the Royal College of Art from 1972 to 1986.

Born in the Alpes Maritimes, the son of a Genoese-French father, he was brought up mainly in Paris by his English mother. After little more than a year studying at the Beaux-Arts in Brussels, he jumped on his bicycle and fled the German-occupied city, crossing the Channel to arrive in London a total loner.

Drawing was his passion and he gained entry into the Slade. Yet England and its landscape had little attraction for him during his subsequent years teaching. 

So it was that he built a reputation in the European tradition of politically and socially conscious artists such as Goya, Grosz, Guttuso and Picasso, sending out vital messages in charcoal.

De Francia lived in Nutley Terrace, Hampstead, for seven years, until 1959, which made it appropriate for the Camden Arts Centre to stage a major retrospective exhibition of his drawings in 1987.

Timothy Hyman, who wrote the catalogue, said of the drawings: “There is nothing quite like them in contemporary art. They seem to me to create a genre all their own. They are not illustrations exactly – the incisive charcoal line, the monumentality of form, carries a powerful physical presence, so that they hold a wall more fittingly than a page.”

Another Hyman, the Hampstead-based James Hyman (no relation), has acknowledged the influence of de Francia’s paintings with a 90th birthday exhibition at his West End gallery in Savile Row.

“Whether de Francia’s subjects are real or imagined, whether he uses the language of myth or fable, what always comes through is the artist’s engagement with people and, above all, his intense humanity,” says James.

The exhibition includes de Francia’s 1953 masterpiece, “The Execution of Beloy­annis”, which is included in the publication 1001 Paintings You Must See Before You Die, and has helped to give him an international reputation.

But what attracted me and the collectors too – works have been sold at prices up to £15,000 – were the smaller, highly evocative works such as “The Survivors” and “Village Couple II, With Dove”.

De Francia was there in his wheelchair at the private view, to be cheered and greeted by old friends. “What really pleased us both was that so many of his former students were there,” said Alix. “One of them came from Germany, another from America. Peter could be very prickly at times but they adore him and remain so loyal.

“It was very good to feel that warmth towards Peter and so good for him to see them again.”

• Peter de Francia Paintings: a 90th Birthday Retrospective runs at James Hyman Fine Art, 5 Savile Row, W1, until February 5, 020 7494 3857, www.jameshymanfineart.com