Grosvenor School of Modern Art
The Grosvenor School of Modern Art was a private British art school and, in its shortened form ("Grosvenor School"), the name of a brief British-Australian art movement. It was founded in 1925 by the Scottish wood engraver Iain Macnab in his house at 33 Warwick Square in Pimlico, London. From 1925 to 1930 Claude Flight ran it with him, and also taught linocutting there; among his students were Sybil Andrews, Cyril Power, Lill Tschudi and William Greengrass.
Grosvenor School of Modern Art
- Name
- Grosvenor School of Modern Art
VALÉORINE Encyclopedia
VALÉORINE documentary reading
Documentary summary
The Grosvenor School of Modern Art was a private British art school and, in its shortened form ("Grosvenor School"), the name of a brief British-Australian art movement. It was founded in 1925 by the Scottish wood engraver Iain Macnab in his house at 33 Warwick Square in Pimlico, London. From 1925 to 1930 Claude Flight ran it with him, and also taught linocutting there; among his students were Sybil Andrews, Cyril Power, Lill Tschudi and William Greengrass.
Admitted source layer · organised and presented by VALÉORINE
Note VALÉORINE
No house-authored Note is published until its assertions and sources pass the VALÉORINE evidence contract. The documentary article remains available in full while that enrichment is being consolidated.
Documentary enrichment in progress · no unsupported statement published
Reference Check
Propose documentary evidence for Grosvenor School of Modern Art. A contribution is never written directly as fact: identity, source, rights and evidence gates still decide.
Sign in to contribute
World of VALÉORINE
Documentary connections
Only confirmed graph relationships appear here. Images are shown only when their identity and reuse rights both pass the documentary gate.
Educated At · incoming
Barbara Austin Taylor
Artist
Educated At · incoming
Cyril Power
Engraver
https://www.facebook.com/photo/?fbid=4218986801697543 set=a.1586329821629934
Educated At · incoming
Dorrit Black
Artist
https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?vanity=female.artists.in.history set=a.1690787321206150
Educated At · incoming
Emmy Bridgwater
Artist
Educated At · incoming
Ethel Spowers
Illustrator
Hamilton Gallery https://www.hamiltongallery.org/product-category/ethel-spowers/
Educated At · incoming
Gwenda Morgan
Engraver
Educated At · incoming
Margaret Barnard
Artist
Educated At · incoming
Mary Groom
Illustrator
Educated At · incoming
Peter Purves Smith
Artist
http://www.artgallery.nsw.gov.au/work/247-1982+head at the Art Gallery of New South Wales
Educated At · incoming
Rachel Reckitt
Illustrator
Documentary evidence
Evidence Panel
not yet certified
- Identity
- unresolved
- Independent source families
- 0
- Admitted assertions
- 0
- Open conflicts
- 0
In this article
Key facts
Key facts
• Name — Grosvenor School of Modern Art • Established — 1925 • Closed — 1940 • Head Label — Founder • Head — Iain Macnab • City — London • Country — United Kingdom • Campus — 33 Warwick Square, Pimlico
Alumni
Alumni
Among those who studied at the school were: • Sybil Andrews (1898-1992) • Margaret Barnard (1898–1992) • Dorrit Black (1891–1951) • Tom Chadwick (1912–1942) • Suzanne Cooper (1916–1992) • Pamela Drew (1910–1989) • Anna Findlay (1885–1968) • Ronald Grierson (1901–1993) • Mary Elizabeth Groom (1903–1958) • Guy Malet (1900–1973) • Alison McKenzie (1907–1982) • Gwenda Morgan (1908–1991), wood engraver • Cyril Power (1872–1951) • Rachel Reckitt (1908–1995), wood engraver and sculptor • Adolfine Mary Ryland (1903–1983) • Ethel Spowers (1890–1947) • Helen Stewart (1900-1983) • Eveline Syme (1888–1961) • Barbara Austin Taylor (1891–1951), sculptor • Lill Tschudi (1911–2004) • William Greengrass (1898–1972), wood engraver, sculptor, one time curator at the V&A • Colin Wyatt (1909-1975) Spowers, Black and Syme became instrumental in organising exhibitions and promoting the school in Australia.
The school
The school had no formal curriculum and students studied what and when they wished. There were day and evening courses: life classes, classes in composition and design, and classes on the history of modern art. Frank Rutter taught a course entitled "From Cézanne to Picasso". Macnab's wife, the dancer Helen Wingrave, gave a dance course. Though there was no formal curriculum, all students attended Claude Flight's linocut classes. The Grosvenor School closed in 1940, merging with the Heatherley School of Fine Art.
Legacy
The school did much to revive interest in printmaking in general, and particularly in the linocut, in the years between the Wars. Artists associated with it have come to be known as the "Grosvenor School", and their work commands high prices. In June–September 2019, the Dulwich Picture Gallery in London hosted the first major exhibition presenting solely the output of the Grosvenor School alumni in a public museum; it was also the first major exhibition outside Australia to have considerable examples of the works by the Australian alumni Ethel Spowers, Dorrit Black and others.
Knowledge graph
People and holdings
Those recorded as working within this institution, and the records it holds or is connected with.
Studied at
2- Emmy BridgwaterArtist
Established from a fact already recorded on a verified source.
- Mary GroomIllustrator
Established from a fact already recorded on a verified source.
The Encyclopedia exists whether or not anything is for sale. Corrections are recorded rather than overwritten, and every version of this record is kept. Published 27 September 2026.
Elsewhere in General
22,759 published records in this field, each with its sources named.
- Grossmont CollegeOrganisation
- GroßneuhausenPlace
- GroßschönauPlace
- GrossweikersdorfPlace
- GrotonPlace
- Groton SchoolOrganisation
- GrottaferrataPlace
- GrottagliePlace
Best supported in this field
For owners
Own an object connected with Grosvenor School of Modern Art?
A specialist will read what you send and tell you what the house can establish, what it cannot, and whether the object is suited to sale. There is no charge and no obligation. The object stays with you throughout; nothing is shipped to us unless it is arranged in writing beforehand.