Hugh Casson (1910 – 1999)
Clare College – The West Front
Lithograph
24 x 40 cm
Titled in plate lower left; numbered 160/500 lower left and signed lower right, both in pencil.
Casson’s view of a bustling Clare College, complete with students punting on the Backs.
Sir Hugh Casson was educated at Eastbourne College; St John’s College, Cambridge; and the Bartlett School of Architecture. Trained in the 1930s in the early modernist style, he taught at the Cambridge School of Architecture. After employment as a camoufleur during World War 2 by the Air Ministry, in 1948 he was appointed as director of architecture for the Festival of Britain. A close friend of the Royal Family, he undertook designs for the 1953 coronation, designed the interior of the Royal Yacht Britannia (“The overall idea was to give the impression of a country house at sea”), and taught the young Charles III to paint in watercolours. Amongst his architectural achievements are the Elephant House at London Zoo, the 1978 redevelopment of Bristol Docks, the Raised Faculty Building for The University of Cambridge, and a building for the Royal College of Art.
He published a number of illustrated books, of which Casson’s Oxford and Casson’s Cambridge are probably the best known. A limited edition series of prints was produced from the paintings.
Condition: very good.
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