Rowland Suddaby was a painter and illustrator, mainly of landscapes. Suddaby was born in Kimberworth, Yorkshire, and studied at Sheffield College of Art from 1926, winning a scholarship there. In 1931, aged 19, he married and moved to London with few prospects but spent two years designing for films in Wardour Street before starting to paint full-time. In 1935 had a first one-man show at the Wertheim Gallery, the next year he exhibited with the Redfern Gallery and with it had a series of one-man appearances. He was regarded by the latter as an artist 'successor' to Christopher Wood, and he painted vigorous and atmospheric pictures in London and Cornwall in the mid to late 1930s some very much in the Wood tradition. These paintings in both oils and watercolours had spontaneity and a sureness of touch which really caught the imagination of critics and collectors alike.
After World War II exhibited solo with Leger Galleries, more recent exhibitions including Austin/Desmond Fine Art. Eventually Suddaby settled at Great Cornard, Sudbury, Suffolk, and became associated with scenes of East Anglia. Once seen his paintings of Suffolk fields, ponds, trees and wooden fences, remain in the memory as they are both so evocative of the landscape and so distinctly Rowland Suddaby. Suddaby illustrated the covers of books by the Essex Marshland writer S L Bensusan and was a founder of the Colchester Art Society, with Edward Bawden, John Nash and Cedric Morris among the exhibitors. Suddaby’s work is held in the collections of 18 UK galleries, including the V&A, and the Government Art Collection has 24 of his works.
