Richard Ernst Eurich was born in Bradford, West Yorkshire on 14 March 1903. He was the second of the five children of German-born Dr F W Eurich, a professor of forensic medicine and bacteriologist, who was by all accounts, a hero to the wool workers, for curing the disease they got from wool particles in their throats. His mother was a Yorkshire Quaker and devoted to good works. Richard was educated at St George’s School, Harpenden during the Great War. The family moved to Ilkley in 1920 and he then attended Bradford Grammar School. He would later say: ‘The first winter in Ilkley opened my eyes to the great beauty of landscape under weather conditions which in town were only a signal for putting on extra clothing…’ He studied painting under H Butler at the Bradford School of Art 1920-24, before moving to London and continuing his training at the Slade under Professor Henry Tonks. There, he was warned to stay away from French art. One of his reports pompously noted: ‘This student is being influenced by painters who have not been dead long enough to be respectable.’ In 1929 Eurich was introduced to Sir Edward Marsh, who introduced him to Eric Gill. Their interest resulted in Eurich’s first solo exhibition of his drawings at the Goupil Gallery, Mayfair later that year. The first exhibition of his paintings was held at the Redfern Gallery in 1933. In 1934 Eurich married Mavis Pope, an art teacher and daughter of a Methodist Minister. They moved to Dibden Purlieu, Hampshire, on the edge of the New Forest to ‘Appletreewick’ the house they had built and which was to become Eurich’s retreat until the end of his life. The following year, their son Crispin was born. Eurich himself certainly remained unseen by the art world and the public. Instead of charming collectors or attending parties, he played the organ in his local church. He represented Britain at the Carnegie International Exhibition at Pittsburgh 1936-39. He was much inspired by Yorkshire’s coastline and he said of it: ‘I loved walking along Chesil Beach, watching and trying to paint on the spot the Great Atlantic Breakers and the passing light and shadow.’ In 1940 his inclination towards maritime subject matter prompted his first commission from the War Artists Advisory Committee for two paintings and in 1942 he was appointed official war artist for the Admiralty. He painted numerous records of the war at sea, such as Withdrawal from Dunkirk, June 1940 and HMS REVENGE Leaving Portsmouth After a Raid, in which the foreground depicts the desolation of ruined, bombed housing. Another good example is his Midget Submarine Attack on the TIRPITZ with the ambitious and ingenious device of representing the submarine as if seen through the glass sides of a fish tank. His paintings of the period were acclaimed for their realism and understatement. Eleven of them were allocated to the collection of the National Maritime Museum at Greenwich after the war. Eurich was elected ARA in 1942. In 1951 a retrospective exhibition of his work was held at Cartwright Hall, Bradford. He was elected RA in 1953. In the period 1949-67 he taught part-time at the Camberwell School of Art. He illustrated Shell and BP Shilling guides and taught at the Royal Academy Schools. In retirement, he visited Lepe Beach, on the shores of the Solent, almost every day and always with his sketchbook. In 1980 a major retrospective exhibition of his work was mounted by Bradford Art Galleries & Museums. It toured Southampton, London and Glasgow. Eurich was awarded the OBE in 1984. Many of his paintings feature landscapes, seascapes, harbour views and industrial marine scenes. His paintings are often both intricately detailed and vast in scope, and his narrative pictures rich in incident. The sea held a special significance his work. According to Eurich it was ‘like a magnet constantly pulling me.’ His reputation was probably not helped by his best-known patron Evelyn Waugh, who purchased The Critics, Eurich’s notorious portrayal of ape-like men, including the then director of the Tate, John Rothenstein. Eurich died in 1992 at the age of 89. The RA and the Tate Gallery both own five of his paintings and he has significant representation in major galleries and museums throughout the UK, as well as Canada, Australia and the United States. In 2003 the Southampton Institute’s Millais Gallery held an exhibition of his work to mark the centenary of his birth. Website at www.richardeurich.co.uk