Leon Underwood was a British sculptor, wood engraver, painter and writer of the twentieth century. Underwood was born 25 December 1890 in London, and studied at the Regent Street Polytechnic from 1907 to 1910, the R.C.A. from 1910 to 1913, and at the Slade School from 1919 to 1920 after undertaking war service between 1914 and 1918 during which he held the position of Captain in the R.E. Camouflage Section. Underwood was awarded a premium in the Rome Prize competition in 1920 but instead of going to Italy went to Iceland. He started his own school of drawing in 1921, and held his first one-man exhibition at the Chenil Galleries in 1922. He visited Holland in 1911, Russia in 1913, Dalmatia and Italy in 1925; he went to the United States and Canada between 1926 and 1927 during which time he published Animalia; he travelled in Mexico during 1928, studying Mayan and Aztec sculpture, and in Spain studying cave paintings. Underwood reopened his drawing school in 1931 and founded the magazine The Island, to which Henry Moore and C. R. W. Nevinson contributed. He wrote Art for Heaven's Sake in 1934, and served in Civil Defence Camouflage from 1939 to 1942. In 1945 Underwood visited West Africa and wrote several books on African art. A Retrospective exhibition of his work was held at the Kaplan Gallery in 1961.
