Charles Ginner

Born in Cannes of British parents, who opposed his early interest in art, Ginner began to study painting in Paris in 1904. He moved to live in London in 1910 and exhibited with the Allied Artists' Association. Here he met Gilman and Gore, and became a regular visitor to Sickert in Fitzroy Street. He helped found the Camden Town Group in 1911, and joined the London Group in 1913 and the Cumberland Market Group a year later. During the First World War he served firstly in the Ordnance Corps, then in the Intelligence Corps between 1916 and 1918, and lastly for the Canadian War Records. He joined the New English Art Club in 1920 and was elected an Associate of the Royal Academy in 1942. An official war artist during the Second World War, he was awarded the CBE in 1950. Ginner painted mainly architectural subjects and landscapes. His early enthusiasm for Van Gogh remained with him, and is perhaps best demonstrated by his use of thick paint, applied in small, regular touches.