Marvel At The Work Of Celebrated Local Artist

November 21, 2014 by Mike

Marvel at the work of celebrated local artist

Thursday 20th November 2014

A new exhibition at the Beecroft Art Gallery will showcase an internationally-renowned artist whose early promise was nurtured in Southend.

The works of Alan Sorrell can be seen at the Gallery in the former Southend Central Library Building in Victoria Avenue, Southend, from Saturday 29th November until Saturday 4th April 2015.

Alan Sorrell who lived from 1904 until 1974, originally trained at Southend School of Art which was then located at the top of Southend High Street in the area now occupied by Sainsburys and Southend Odeon. He went on to study at the Royal College of Art before winning a scholarship to attend the British School at Rome in 1928.

This exceptionally talented artist whose work features many different mediums and subjects, regularly visited the Beecroft and exhibited there from the 1950s until his death in 1974.

Consequently, the Gallery holds dozens of his works, such as the whole series of drawings he made in Nubia for the Illustrated London News.

As well as local landscapes, historical reconstructions and preparatory sketches for murals belonging to the Beecroft Art Gallery, the exhibition has also led to the unique opportunity to display other borrowed pictures which reflect the true range of Sorrell’s abilities.

Executive Councillor for Enterprise, Tourism and Economic Development, Councillor Graham Longley said: “We are grateful to the Sorrell family, Liss Fine Art Ltd and to private lenders for helping with these loans which fully illustrate the accomplished career of this extraordinary artist. We hope as many people as possible will be able to come along to see and appreciate them.”

Alan Sorrell was renowned for his remarkable ‘reconstruction’ drawings of ancient sites, shown as they appeared in their heyday. He achieved these thanks to his keen interest in history, his collaborations with archaeological and historical experts, his vivid artistic imagination and sense of space. These works were commissioned by the Ministry of Works (English, Welsh and Scottish Heritage), The Illustrated London News, television companies and others.

Many of Sorrell’s works in the Beecroft Art Gallery’s collection are local landscapes. His sense of detail particularly suited the busy urban scene, and his picture painted from the top floor of Southend Civic Centre on Victoria Avenue is one of the Beecroft’s most popular works.

Between 1932 and 1937 Sorrell produced four large murals for Southend Central Library based at the time in the Victoria Avenue building where Southend Central Museum can now be found. Preparatory sketches of the murals in oil and watercolour will be on display in the exhibition.

In 1962 The Illustrated London News commissioned Sorrell to draw monuments and villages of Nubia about to be submerged or relocated to make way for the Aswan High Dam. The Egyptian Government supplied Sorrell with a boat enabling him to visit Abu Simbel, Buhen and many temples along the Nile. After publication, his drawings were purchased by Frank Todman of Southend and bequeathed to the gallery.