James Lovegrove (1922-1997)
Following active service in the Second World War, Lovegrove worked in a variety of roles. He was involved in forestry, was managing director of a shell fish farm, and provided plant and floral decor for outside broadcasts for TWW, the former Welsh television company. He later settled in Winchester, working in banking, specialising in unit trust management.
Lovegrove always had a great love of the sea, which he attributed to his mother’s family. They were seamen, ship engineers, and ship captains. He and his wife, Jean, and their family, lived by the sea in Wales for many years and he went to sea for a time, sailing half-way round the world with Bill Tilman, whom he described as the last great mountaineer of the Himalayas, the Caucasus and Africa. When Tilman found he could not climb beyond 20,000 feet without oxygen, Mr Lovegrove recalled, he took to sailing and was a brilliant navigator.
He returned to art later in life, “I only went back to art in 1991,” he told the Hampshire Chronicle, “I had to work for a living at other jobs for some considerable time.”
The artist exhibited widely in the south, including at Winchester Guildhall Gallery, Bankside Gallery, London and Bell Fine Art, Winchester.
Information drawn from Lovegrove's obituary in the Hampshire Chronicle. We are grateful to the artist's family for their assistance with this biography.
Collections
Aberdeen Art Gallery
Victoria and Albert Museum, London
Literature
Buckman, D (2006), Artists in Britain Since 1945, Art Dictionaries Ltd
Johnson J and Greutzner A (1999), British Artists 1880-1940, Antique Collectors’ Club
Following active service in the Second World War, Lovegrove worked in a variety of roles. He was involved in forestry, was managing director of a shell fish farm, and provided plant and floral decor for outside broadcasts for TWW, the former Welsh television company. He later settled in Winchester, working in banking, specialising in unit trust management.
Lovegrove always had a great love of the sea, which he attributed to his mother’s family. They were seamen, ship engineers, and ship captains. He and his wife, Jean, and their family, lived by the sea in Wales for many years and he went to sea for a time, sailing half-way round the world with Bill Tilman, whom he described as the last great mountaineer of the Himalayas, the Caucasus and Africa. When Tilman found he could not climb beyond 20,000 feet without oxygen, Mr Lovegrove recalled, he took to sailing and was a brilliant navigator.
He returned to art later in life, “I only went back to art in 1991,” he told the Hampshire Chronicle, “I had to work for a living at other jobs for some considerable time.”
The artist exhibited widely in the south, including at Winchester Guildhall Gallery, Bankside Gallery, London and Bell Fine Art, Winchester.
Information drawn from Lovegrove's obituary in the Hampshire Chronicle. We are grateful to the artist's family for their assistance with this biography.
Collections
Aberdeen Art Gallery
Victoria and Albert Museum, London
Literature
Buckman, D (2006), Artists in Britain Since 1945, Art Dictionaries Ltd
Johnson J and Greutzner A (1999), British Artists 1880-1940, Antique Collectors’ Club