Hampstead’s Pioneers of Modern Art

Blue plaque to Lee Miller and Roland Penrose, 21 Downshire Hill. Photo: Marilyn Greene

Meet at Hampstead Tube Station

In the first half of the 20th Century Hampstead was home to some of the era’s most pioneering artists. We will walk in the footsteps of the Slade School artists such as Mark Gertler, Stanley Spencer and R.W. Nevinson who socialised in Downshire Hill with the artistic Carline family.

We will hear of their loves, hates and reactions to the First World War. A small diversion will take us to the Vale of Health where the former Vale of Health Hotel was situated and we will see the site of the old Hampstead fairground painted by both Stanley Spencer and Mark Gertler. In Downshire Hill we will also discuss the role that Roland Penrose, Margaret Gardiner and Fred and Diana Uhlman played in the art world in the years leading up to, and during, the Second World War. We walk to Belsize Park to learn of the Modernists including Henry Moore, Piet Mondrian and Barbara Hepworth whom Herbert Read described as living as a “nest of gentle artists” and conclude with the refugee designers who stayed at the Isokon flats before moving to pastures new.

The walk is led by guide and art historian, Marilyn Greene

The walk duration: two and a half hours.