Alan Sorrell (1904 – 1974)

Pembroke College, View from the North Quadrangle (1966)

Lithograph

36 x 50 cm

A lithograph of Pembroke’s North Quad, from a drawing by Alan Sorrell. The artist’s striking use of perspective and nebulously sketched figures make it a good example of Sorrell’s style.

Sorrell’s 1965 etching was reproduced as a lithograph a year later, to be published in the “Oxford Almanack”. The Oxford Almanack was an annual almanac published by the Oxford University Press for the University of Oxford from 1674 through 2019 (when printing sadly ceased due to “dwindling interest”). The almanac traditionally included engravings or lithographs of the University and information about the upcoming year. Other almanac artists have included James Basire, Michael Burghers, J. M. W. Turner, and John Piper.

Alan Ernest Sorrell was an English artist and writer best remembered for his archaeological illustrations, particularly his detailed reconstructions of Roman Britain. Sorrell trained at the Southend municipal school of art and, after a brief spell as a commercial artist in London, he attended the Royal College of Art between 1924 and 1927. He was a Senior Assistant Instructor of Drawing there between 1931 and 1939, and again between 1946 and 1948. In 1937 he had been elected a member of the Royal Watercolour Society, and during the war served as a camofleur. After the war, Sorrell’s archaeological and architectural work became their focus.

Condition: very good.

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