PETER SAMUELSON - POST WAR FRIENDS Paintings from the 1950's and 60's Peter Samuelson (1912 - 1996) is increasingly recognised as one of the most significant painters of the period immediately following World War II.    His work forms a bridge between the artistic generations of Duncan Grant and David Hockney. His long wait for recognition is mainly due to his own reluctance to place his work with galleries for public display. His work has now been photographed and catalogued by the Bridgman Art Library as the work of a significant artist of the period. Works by Peter Samuelson are in the collections of the late Sir Alan Bates, and Anne Robinson, the writer and broadcaster, among many others.

A man of independent means, he lived entirely for the activity of painting, and paid little regard to its commercial potential. Living in West London, he chose as his subject matter his family and friends, and the many young working class men he came across in his daily life. Some were local workman like Ray the Butcher and John the Postman; others were young friends who rented rooms in his large house. Yet others were the young black men of the Windrush generation who were beginning to settle in London in the 1950’s. Peter Samuelson’s paintings are characterised by a fine technique, tenderness and reticence of expression. He delicately captures the quiet restraint of the period immediately before the 1960’s explosion in artistic and social attitudes.