John Frye Bourne (1912–1991): A Portrait

John Frye Bourne (1912–1991) was the youngest student to be accepted at the Royal Academy Schools since J.M.W. Turner, aged just sixteen. He went on to become a popular portrait artist amongst fashionable circles, working in a realist manner characteristic of British art between the Wars. Precise, hard-edged and graphic, his subjects, such as 'The Resting Land-Girl' and 'The Lacrosse Girl', were simultaneously a romantised view of British life and a presentation of modernity.

Newly listed this week, our collection of portrait sketches exemplify his talent, many dating from Bourne's years at the Royal Academy in the early 1930s.

Image 3: The Lacrosse Girl, 1950

Image 6: The Hikers