Leonard Rosoman was born at 15 Dene Mansions,
Dennington Park Road in West Hampstead on 27 October 1913. His parents were
Henry Griffith Rosman a removal contactor and job master, and Lilian Blanche
Spencer the daughter of a tailor. They soon separated and following their
divorce, both remarried. From the age of five Leonard lived with his Spencer
uncles and aunts at No.2 Priory Road. His father’s sister Bessie Bryne was a
commercial artist who encouraged Leonard’s interest in drawing and took him to
the Royal Academy’s summer exhibition and other galleries. Leonard went to
Kingsgate infant school Kilburn, and then to Deacon’s School in Peterborough
where he lived with his mother and an unsympathetic stepfather.
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| Leonard Rosoman, by Baron 1955 (NPG) |
Leonard began training as an artist in
Newcastle, then at the Royal Academy Schools and two years at the Central
School of Arts and Crafts (1936-37). Influenced by Paul Gauguin and Paul Nash, his
work began to be recognized. In 1936 he was commissioned to design a series of
posters for Shell’s series about British landmarks. He did book illustrations
and in 1938 began teaching at the Reimann School in London.
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| Men of the London AFS, Leonard Rosoman is in the middle |
At the outbreak of War, Leonard joined the
London Auxiliary Fire Service with other writers and artists such as the poet Stephen Spender and the novelist
William Sansom. In the September 1939 Register he was
recorded along with 15 other AFS volunteers at Hardy’s Garage in Northways
Parade Finchley Road, near Swiss Cottage. There is a 1940 Pathe film of him
with the Fire Service called Flash!!!
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| A house collapsing on two firemen (IWM) |
Leonard’s most famous picture shows the
collapse of a house on two firemen. He witnessed the incident first-hand in
Shoe Lane near Fleet Street when one of his friends died and the other was
injured. Rosoman who barely escaped, said he needed to paint the image to get
it out of his system.
In April 1945 he was sent to the Far East as
an official war artist to the Admiralty and he joined the aircraft carrier HMS
Formidable where he produced many impressive paintings which are now in the
Imperial War Museum. He said, ‘I’ve become interested in all sorts of strange
devices like radar indicators, pom-poms and planes with wings that fold up like
a moth’s.’
After the War, from 1951 to 1961 Leonard was
in a relationship with Ginette Morton Evans (who was married to Lt-Col. Kenneth
Morton Evans), and they travelled to France, Italy, and Spain. In 1963 Rosman
married the film costume designer Jocelyn Rickards, who was called ‘one of the
most exciting women in London’. They divorced six years later.
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| Veruschka in a Jocelyn Rickard's dress for 'Blow Up' |
He taught in London before going to the
Edinburgh College of Art to teach mural painting. He returned to London and
taught at the Royal College of Art from 1957 until his retirement in 1978. His
most famous pupils were Peter Blake and David Hockney.
In the 1960’s and 70s Rosoman had a studio at
7 Pembroke Studios in Pembroke Gardens.
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| In his studio 2007 |
He produced a series of paintings inspired by
John Osborne’s 1965 play ‘A Patriot for Me,’ based on the story of the gay Austro-Hungarian
Army officer Colonel Alfred Redl. Leonard became close friends with Osborne and
his wife Jill Bennett, but the film was refused a license by the censor, and
the Royal Court Theater had to change into a private club. Rosoman was
appointed a full Royal Academician in 1969 and awarded an OBE in 1981.
From 1972 he was with the American pianist
Roxanne Levy and they married in 1994. Leonard who remained ‘a youthful Peter Pan well into
his nineties’, died in London in February
2012 aged 98. He was buried in Brompton Cemetery. Roxanne died in August 2018.
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