Rodney Joseph Burn

{{Infobox artist

| name = Rodney Joseph Burn

| birth_date = {{birth date|1899|7|11|df=y}}

| birth_place = Palmers Green, London, England

| death_date = {{death date and age|1984|8|11|1899|7|11|df=y}}

| death_place =

| field = Landscape & portrait painting

| training = {{unbulleted list |Slade School of Fine Art|}}

}}

Rodney Joseph Burn {{Post-nominals|country=GBR|RA}} (11 July 1899 – 11 August 1984) was a British artist who painted landscapes, portraits and figures and seascapes.{{cite web |author=Royal Academy|url=http://www.racollection.org.uk/ixbin/indexplus?_IXACTION_=file&_IXFILE_=templates/full/person.html&_IXTRAIL_=Academicians&person=5554 |title=Rodney Burn, RA |access-date=22 December 2015|work=The Royal Academy}}{{cite book|author=Grant M. Waters|publisher=Eastbourne Fine Art|year=1975|title=Dictionary of British Artists Working 1900-1950}} During his long career he also worked in America and painted in the Channel Islands and Venice and was elected a member of the Royal Academy in 1962.

Life and work

File:Dr R E Stradling, CB, MD, FRS (Art.IWM ART LD 3559).jpg

Burn was born in Palmers Green in London and attended Harrow School.{{cite web|url=http://visualarts.britishcouncil.org/collection/artists/rodney-joseph-burn-1899|title=Artist biography;- Rodney Joseph Burn|publisher=British Council|access-date=13 May 2015|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150518091936/http://visualarts.britishcouncil.org/collection/artists/rodney-joseph-burn-1899|archive-date=18 May 2015|df=dmy-all}} His father was Sir Joseph Burn, who was the chairman of the Prudential Insurance company.{{cite web|url=http://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/burn-by-the-lake-t03214/text-catalogue-entry |title=Catalogue entry; By the Lake|publisher=Tate |access-date=12 May 2015}}

After military service in the British army in World War One, Burn entered the Slade School of Art where he studied between 1918 and 1922.{{cite book|publisher=Editions Grund, Paris|year=2006|title=Benezit Dictionary of Artists Volume 3 Bulow-Cossin|isbn=2-7000-3073-7}} At the Slade Burn won six major prizes, featured in an article in The Burlington Magazine and met his future wife, the sculptor Dorothy Sharwood Smith.{{cite book|author=David Buckman|publisher=Art Dictionaries Ltd|year=1998|title=Artists in Britain Since 1945 Vol 1, A to L |isbn=0-95326-095-X}} Burn was among a number of London artschool graduates selected by the London County Council to produce a large work for a series showing scenes from London parks, that was intended for the newly built County Hall.{{cite web|url=http://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/burn-waterlow-park-highgate-t06497/text-technique-and-condition|author=Roy Perry |title=Technique & condition; Waterlow Park, Highgate|publisher=Tate |date=1996 |access-date=12 May 2015}} Burn exhibited with the New English Art Club from 1923 and held a joint exhibition, with Stephen Bone and Robin Guthrie, at the Goupil Gallery in 1926. From 1929 to 1931 he taught as a tutor at the Royal College of Art.{{cite book|author=Frances Spalding|author-link=Frances Spalding|publisher=Antique Collectors' Club|year=1990|title=20th Century Painters and Sculptors |isbn=1-85149-106-6}} From 1931 to 1934 he was, with Robin Guthrie, the joint director of painting and drawing at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.

During the Second World War, Burn was among the artists who worked at the Civil Defence Camouflage Establishment based in Leamington Spa. Later during the war he completed a number of short commissions for the War Artists' Advisory Committee, including a portrait of Dr Stradling, a Director of the Camouflage Establishment.{{cite web|url=http://www.iwm.org.uk/collections/item/object/1050001278 |title=War artists archive|publisher=Imperial War Museum|access-date=12 May 2015}} After the war Burn returned to the Royal College of Art and taught there as a Senior Tutor until his retirement in 1965. During his career he also taught at both the Camberwell School of Art and at the City and Guilds of London Art School. Dorothy Sharwood Smith also taught at Camberwell for several years.{{cite book|author=Geoff Hassell|publisher=Antique Collectors' Club|year=1995|title=Camberwell School of Arts & Crafts Its Students and Teachers 1943-1960 |isbn=1-85149-180-5}} Burn spent his later years teaching in Europe and sailing. For a time he lived on the south coast of England near Chichester and his last studio was on the bank of the Thames at Chiswick.

Memberships

Burn was a member of or affiliated with the following organisations:{{cite book|author=RSMA|publisher= Bounty Books|year=1996|title=A Celebration of Marine Art -Sixty Years of the Royal Society of Marine Artists|isbn=978-0-7537-2468-2}}

1924: Member, later Honorary Secretary, of the New English Art Club,
1954: Elected associate of the Royal Academy,
1962: Elected full member of the Royal Academy.

Burn was also a member of the Royal West of England Academy and President of the St. Ives Society of Artists