About
John Robert England
This site presents the paintings, drawings, carvings and design work of British artist and former head of framing at the National Gallery, London, John Robert England (1941–2025).
These landscapes, faces, figures, trees and flowers, as well as graphic and furniture design work*, are art works in their own right but also form the creative background to one of Britain’s foremost craftsmen and conservators.
With his retirement from the National Gallery in 2001, England’s love for the art of the past was the impetus and inspiration for the England Collection of Medieval and Reformation Art.
*Dates and media
This archive comprises pieces from two sketchbooks inscribed with England’s St.Quintin’s Avenue address, dating to approximately 1956-1959 (St.Quintin’s book 1) and 1959-1961 (St.Quintin’s book 2), together with a book dating from 1964 to 1970 (Book 3), and loose pieces contained in a number of portfolios covering work from 1958 onwards (Folios).
England favoured pencil on paper, but was also successful using scraper-board (mostly for card designs) and pen and ink on card. Exceptionally, he used pastel and colour pencil. Most paintings are oil on canvas or oil on board, with design work executed in gouache.
Clearly, it was England’s genius that he was able, half-way through his career, to adopt the craft of wood-carving and to do so at the highest professional standard. Unfortunately, photographs are not available for most of England’s frames and not all remain on the walls of the National Gallery (replaced when period frames have been found at a later date). Happily, however, the results of his conservation work, on the di Cione and Wilton Diptych, in particular, is still in place for all to see.
