Twentieth-century design classics, a muted palette and, of course, beautiful artworks create a peaceful feel in the home of artist David Gentleman
FEATURE AMANDA HARLING PHOTOGRAPHS ANDREAS VON EINSIEDEL
Gentleman’s
Perched on a swivelling chair in his attic studio in London’s Camden Town, artist David Gentleman maintains that the only thing that interests him is his art. ‘I feel I’m wasting time if I’m not drawing or painting,’ he says. Now in his 94th year, Gentleman has lived in the five-storey house with his wife, Sue, for over 50 years.
David recalls how his interest in painting and drawing began at an early age. ‘My parents, who were both artists, met at The Glasgow School of Art. They moved south to Hertford when my father joined the London design studio of Shell-Mex.’ Upon leaving school, David studied initially at St Albans School of Art, followed by National Service in Cornwall during the early 1950s. ‘I went on to study illustration at the Royal College of Art where my tutors included Edward Bawden, Paul Nash and Edward Ardizzone. I remember one of my earliest commissions was to draw the medieval market crosses in towns up and down the country for a design firm.’ Since then he has travelled far and wide – writing and illustrating books on Britain, Paris, India and Italy.
On his doorstep, however, is London, which in all its varied guises provides him with never-ending subject matter. Since the 1960s he has designed over 100 stamps for Royal Mail, and spanning the length of the platforms at Charing Cross Underground station are the murals based on his wood engravings of 15th-century working Londoners. The capital’s idiosyncratic population continually provides him with inspiration, as does East Anglia, which has figured in much of his work. ‘Sue and I met when I was commissioned to make drawings for a book by George Ewart Evans, who had moved to Suffolk with his family. His wife became headmistress of the local school while he stayed home to look after the couple’s four children, one of whom was Sue,’ says David.
Sue, who was barely out of her teens, was much taken with the visiting artist and within months had moved to London with David. ‘In due course we married and a year or two later we bought this house,’ says Sue. ‘David’s 12-year-old daughter, Fenella,
