Arthur John Ensor
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- Accademia di Belle Arti di Firenze
- Polytechnic School of Art
- Royal College of Art
Arthur John Ensor | |
|---|---|
| Born | 2 January 1905 |
| Died | 18 January 1995 (aged 90) Saanich, British Columbia, Canada |
| Education |
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| Known for | Painter, industrial designer |
Arthur John Ensor RCA (2 January 1905 – 18 January 1995) was a British-Canadian painter and industrial designer.
Ensor was born in Llanishen, Wales on 2 January 1905. His parents moved to Canada when he was a child but he returned to Europe to study art, first in Florence at the Accademia di Belle Arti di Firenze and then in London at the Polytechnic School of Art before he graduated with a Diploma in Mural Painting and Art History from the Royal College of Art. After graduation, Ensor worked for the Empire Marketing Board before, in 1935, taking a post as an Industrial Designer for the Plastics Division of Imperial Chemical Industries.[1]
World War Two
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At the start of World War Two Ensor contacted the War Artists' Advisory Committee, WAAC, and he was eventually offered a short contract to record industrial scenes in the United Kingdom. By this time Ensor had already enlisted in the British Army and arrangements were made for him to produce four paintings in August 1942 before undertaking a drawing commission at the Vickers Armstrong Aircraft Assembly Works, where Vickers Wellington bombers were being built. Ensor submitted these pictures to WAAC in November 1942 and this led to a further commission at the John Summers & Sons steel plant which Ensor completed while on leave from the Army.[2] During the war Ensor also recorded scenes of troop training, of oil drilling and of anti-aircraft and coastal defences.
