Hanz Schwarz

Hans Schwarz (1922-2003) was a talented, versatile and prolific painter with a marked expressionist touch. His work is in some key British collections including the National Portrait Gallery, the National Maritime Museum and Glasgow City Art Gallery. He was also something of a Renaissance man, being a sculptor, illustrator, author, antique dealer and teacher as well as painter.

Though a settled family man with regular exhibition oulets through leading societies like the Royal Watercolour Society, the wartime émigré Schwarz knew from his early life about uprootedness and uncertainty. It shaped his left leaning political outlook. After settling in Britain during the war he lived in the West Midlands before settling in London during the early 1950s. After initial spells at Wimbledon and Hampstead he settled permanently in Greenwich in 1970 where, he lived and worked for the rest of his highly productive life. Benefitting from a holiday home in Stogursey, West Somerset from 1964 onwards Schwarz was able to complement his talent for portraiture with many paintings of both the urban London and rural West Country landscape.

His style was a compelling mix of neo-romantic, kitchen sink and expressionist styles and he had an infectious way with colour that was tangibly Bonnardesque. Fascinated by people, he painted many notables including the Queen Mother, Nikolaus Pevsner, Bruce Kent, Ivor Cutler, Janet Suzman and Tom Jackson and Joe Gormley who appear in 'Trade Unionists', his show stopper in the National Portrait Gallery collection.