Lot 347: Leonard Greaves 1918-1949 British Oil on Canvas A

Leonard Greaves 1918-1949 British Oil on Canvas A rare portrait of the celebrated abstract expressionist artist Gerald Wilde. Signed and dated 1942. 18½ x 12½ in. The sitter, born in 1905, was for many years wrongly thought to be the illegitimate son of the author Oscar Wilde, in part because he was put through Chelsea Art school by Lord Douglas. Taught by Graham Sutherland and Sir Henry Moore, Wilde was a respected contemporary of Francis Bacon. Often described as 'the forgotten genius of British painting", a major retrospective of his work was held at the ICA in 1955. Exhibited at The October Gallery, No: 76, Gerald Wilde Retrospective 1988. In a review he wrote of 'British Painting Since Whistler' at the National Gallery in 1940, Leonard Greaves noted that; "Abstract and surrealist artists are noticeably unrepresented". In 1943, Leonard Greaves exhibited at the Leicester Galleries, London, alongside Walter Sickert, Ivon Hitchens, John Piper, Ruskin Spear and Jacob Epstein.