KEN HOWARD OBE RA
London 1932 - 2022 Cornwall
Ref: CB 129
Venetian reflections
Signed lower left: Ken Howard
Oil on canvas: 40 x 48 in / 101.6 x 121.9 cm
Frame size: 47 ½ x 55 ½ in / 120.6 x 141 cm
Painted circa 1999
Provenance:
Private collection, UK, purchased from the Royal Academy Summer Exhibition in 1999
Exhibited:
London, Royal Academy of Arts, Summer Exhibition, 7th June-15th August 1999, no.970
‘I believe Venice to be the most beautiful city in the world. So many painters have worked there including Corot, Boudin, Monet, Manet, Sargent, Sickert and Whistler, and all have said something different. Everyone should visit Venice at least once in their life, it is the only place I know where once can stand on one sport and see a composition at every turn. The light is magical, the architecture majestic and of course there are no cars. Venice is unique and will become more so as other cities become more and more alike.’ Ken Howard, 2016
This beautiful view looks from the Doge’s Palace on the eastern side of the Piazzetta San Marco across to the Bacino di San Marco with the Biblioteca Nazionale Marciana or Library of St Mark on the right. Jacopo Sansovino’s finest achievement, the library is a magnificent flowering of High Renaissance architecture deemed by Palladio to be the most beautiful building since antiquity. It was begun in 1537 and finished by Scamozzi in 1591. The spur for the project was the donation to Venice of two magnificent libraries: that of the poet and humanist Francesco Petrarch in 1362 and that of Cardinal Bessarion in 1468. The dazzling building of Istrian stone, encrusted with sculpture by Bartolomeo Ammanati, Alessandro Vittoria and others, is one of the finest examples of Venetian Renaissance architecture; its arcade became a favourite afternoon meeting place for patricians. The Piazzetta is bounded by columns with statues of St Theodore, the original patron saint of Venice, with the dragon he battled, and the lion of St Mark.
Biographical chronology
1932
Ken Howard born in London
1949-1953
Studied at the Hornsey School of Art
1952
First exhibited at the Royal Academy
1953-55
National Service in the Royal Marines
1955-58
Studied at the Royal College of Art
1958-59
British Council Scholarship to Florence
1959
First exhibited at the New English Art Club
First exhibited at 147 New Bond Street
1962
Elected member of the New English Art Club
1966
Elected member of the Royal Institute of Oil Painters
First prize Lord Mayor’s Art Award
1969
First prize Arundel Art Centre
1973
Appointed official artist in Ireland by the Imperial War Museum
1978
Prize winner John Moores Exhibition
1979
Elected member of the Royal Society of Painters in Watercolours
Prize winner John Laing Exhibition
1981
Elected member of the Royal West of England Academy
1982
First prize Hunting Group Awards
1983
Associate Member of the Royal Academy
Prize winner Royal West of England Academy
1985
Critics’ prize, Sparkasse Karlsruhe
1986
Prize winner New English Art Club Centenary Exhibition
1988
Honorary Member of the Royal Society of British Artists
Honorary Member of the Royal Institute of Oil Painters
1991
Member of the Royal Academy
1998
President of the New English Art Club
2001
Critics’ prize New English Art Club 2001
2004
Elected Royal Academy Professor of Perspective
2006
Elected fellow of the Royal Institute of Oil Painters
2007
Appointed Freeman of the City of London, Liveryman Painter Stainers
2008
Honorary Member of the Society of Graphic Fine Art
2010
Awarded OBE for services to Art in the Queen’s Birthday Honours
2011
Publication of Light and Dark: The Autobiography of Ken Howard RA
2013
Publication of Ken Howard’s Switzerland: In the Footsteps of Turner
Commissions include:
The Drapers Company
The Haberdashers Company
States of Jersey
HQ British Army of the Rhine
United Nations Forces in Cyprus
The Stock Exchange, London
Lloyds of London
The Royal Hospital, Chelsea
Banque Paribas
Works by Ken Howard can be seen in the following public collections:
Royal Academy of Arts, London
Plymouth City Art Gallery
Sheffield Art Gallery
Hove Museum and Art Gallery
Guildhall Art Gallery, London
Ulster Museum and Art Gallery
The Imperial War Museum, London
The National Army Museum, London
One Man Exhibitions
1955
Plymouth Art Centre
1966
John Whibley Gallery, London
1968
John Whibley Gallery, London
1971
New Grafton Gallery, London
1972
Plymouth Art Gallery – Retrospective Exhibition
1974
New Grafton Gallery, London
1976
New Grafton Gallery, London
1978
New Grafton Gallery, London
1979
New Metropole, Folkestone
Hong Kong Art Centre
St Helier Gallery
1980
St Helier Gallery
1981
New Grafton Gallery, London
1982
Nicosia
1983
Delhi 1983
1984
New Grafton Gallery, London
St Helier Gallery
1985
New Grafton Gallery, London
1986
Linton Court Gallery
1987
Lowndes Lodge Gallery, London
New Grafton Gallery, London
1989
Lowndes Lodge Gallery, London
1990
New Grafton Gallery, London
Lowndes Lodge Gallery, London
1991
Lowndes Lodge Gallery, London
Brian Sinfield Gallery, Gloucestershire
1992
Lowndes Lodge Gallery, London
1993
New Grafton Gallery, London
Brian Sinfield Gallery, Gloucestershire
1995
New Grafton Gallery, London
Brian Sinfield Gallery, Gloucestershire
1997
New Grafton Gallery, London
1998
The Everard Read, Johannesburg
2000
New Grafton Gallery, London
The Everard Read Gallery, Cape Town
2002
Richard Green, London
2003
Richard Green, London
2004
Richard Green, London
2005
Richard Green, London
2006
Richard Green, London
2007
Richard Green, London
2009
Richard Green, London
2011
Richard Green, London
2012
Richard Green, London
2013
Richard Green, London
2014
Richard Green, London
2015
Richard Green, London
2016
Richard Green, London
2017 Richard Green, London
