Euston Road School

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Group of English painters associated with the ‘School of Drawing and Painting’ founded in 1937 in Euston Road, London, by William Coldstream (b. 1908), Victor Pasmore (1908–1998), Claude Rogers (b. 1907), and Graham Bell (1910–1943). Despite its brief existence, the school influenced many British painters with its emphasis on careful, subdued naturalism.

The painters worked alongside their students in the school and encouraged them to ‘keep their eyes on what they saw’, without being preoccupied by theory or the dominant influence of the School of Paris. The enterprise flourished until the outbreak of war in 1939 and, apart from its educational aspect, came to stand for a kind of realism which has a well-defined place in English art of the the mid-20th century, its essence being the belief that everyday life is by no means exhausted as the material for art.

The mon, the central red disc, is called Hi-no-maru or sun-disc. The disc is set slightly towards the hoist. White symbolizes honesty and purity. Effective date: 5 August 1854. >>