Elwin Hawthorne

Elwin Hawthorne (1905–1954) was a British painter, and part of the so-called East London Group.[1][2] He was often described as an English Utrillo.[2]

Hawthorne was born Elwin Hawthorn in Poplar, London, in 1905.[2] one of six sons and a daughter, whose father was a painter and decorator.[2] He left school aged 14, without obtaining any qualifications.[2] With no job, he took art courses at Bethnal Green Men's Institute and the Bow & Bromley Evening Institute.[2] He adopted the spelling "Hawthorne" from 1928, having being catalogued as such at an East London Art Club exhibition held at Whitechapel Art Gallery.[2] He subsequently worked, for three years, as assistant to Walter Sickert.[2]

He exhibited regularly at Lefevre Galleries, who paid him a retainer and had first refusal on his works, and hosted two solo exhibitions.[2] He painted a number of buildings in London, including St John-at-Hampstead, and the since-demolished St Andrew's church in Vanbrugh Park.[1] Further afield, his subjects include North Foreland Lighthouse.[1] One of his painting was shown in the British pavilion at the 1936 Venice Biennale.[2]

He served in the army during World War II, which conflict saw the end of his exhibiting.[2] After discharge, he became a wages clerk for Plessey and taught art part-time.[2]

Hawthorne died in the King George Hospital at Ilford, Essex, on 15 October 1954[3] and was survived by his wife, Lilian (ne Leahy; they married in 1937 and she died in 1996[4]), who was also an East London Group artist, and their two children.[2] By the time of his death, aged 49, he had become so disenchanted with the art world that he had used one of his paintings, on board, as a shelf in a coal bunker. It was later recovered by his wife. HIs estate at probate was worth £1442 8s.[3]

The author David Buckman has described him as:[2]

a prominent talent in the [East London] Group and an integral part of the lost history of one of the major artistic movements to come out of the East End in the last century.

A number of Hawthorne's works are in public collections in the United Kingdom, including Manchester Art Gallery, the Laing Art Gallery, Ulster Museum, St. Anne's College (University of Oxford), Russell-Cotes Art Gallery & Museum, Aberdeen Art Gallery & Museums, Herbert Art Gallery & Museum, Camden Local Studies and Archives Centre, and the Harris Museum & Art Gallery.[1]