Christopher Wood

Art Brokerage: Christopher Wood British Artist: b. 1901-1930. Born in Knowsley, near Liverpool, on 7 April 1901, the son of Mrs Clare and Dr Lucius Wood, a GP. Wood began drawing at age fourteen and studied architecture briefly at Liverpool University from 1919-20. After meeting Alphonse Kahn in London in 1920, he was invited by the French collector to accompany him to Paris, where Wood studied drawing at the Academie Julian in 1921. In Paris, he was became acquainted with Chilean diplomat Antonio de Gandarillas, who both supported Wood financially and introduced him to Picasso, Georges Auric and Jean Cocteau. While his painting retained its naive charm, Wood was also influenced by the new friends he was making. In 1926, Wood began designs for Romeo and Juliet by Diaghilev's Ballets Russes. When his designs were abandoned at the last moment, Wood turned his concentration back to England; in 1926 he joined the London Group, and the Seven and Five Society, and the following year exhibited with Ben and Winifred Nicholson at the Beaux Arts Gallery. Wood became very close with the Nicholsons, particularly Winifred, after his failed elopement with painter and heiress Meraud Guinness. In 1928, during a painting tour of Cumberland and Cornwall, Wood and Ben Nicholson encountered Alfred Wallis; the 'primitive' expression of this fisherman painter would have a profound impact on both of their work. Wood continued to exhibit in London and in Paris, with a solo exhibition at Tooth's Gallery in 1929 and a joint exhibition with Nicholson at Galerie Bernheim in May, 1930. The summer of 1930 was spent painting in Brittany, preparing for an exhibition of new work at the Wertheim Gallery, London, that October. In August 1930, however, Wood threw himself under the London train at Salisbury. In deference to his mother, his death was often described as accidental. Posthumous exhibitions were held at the Wertheim Gallery in 1931 and the Lefevre Galleries in 1932. In 1938, the British pavilion at the Venice Biennale featured paintings by Wood, coinciding with a major exhibition organised by the Redfern Gallery at the New Burlington Galleries. The exhibition was an ambitious effort to gather the complete works of Christopher Wood and his contributions to Neo-Romanticism.