David Gommon

David Gommon
Self portrait, Circa 1932
Born	(1913-12-12)12 December 1913 Battersea, London
Died	20 January 1987(1987-01-20) (aged 73) Northampton
Nationality	English
Known for	painter

David Gommon (12 December 1913 – 20 January 1987) was a British painter born in Battersea, South London.

David Gommon was born on 12 December 1913 in Battersea in South London. His father was a Londoner, a journeyman carpenter. At the age of 16 he was enrolled in Battersea Polytechnic and the Clapham School of Art. He was able to visit art galleries of the Netherlands to study the paintings of the great masters. He met art collector, Lucy Carrington Wertheim and, when he was 18-19, she became his patron paying £2 a week for his work.

It was through Lucy Wertheim that he held his first one-man show at her gallery in Burlington Gardens, and attracted positive critical attention. During this time he met many other patrons of the arts and he painted the young dancers Margot Fonteyn and Robert Helpmann at Saddlers Wells. He was part of the 20s group supported by Lucy Wertheim that included Christopher Wood, Barbara Hepworth, Roger Hilton, Robert Medley, Phelan Gibb, David Burton, Humphrey Slater and Victor Pasmore.

In his own work he gradually focussed on the essence of the English and Welsh landscapes. In 1938 he stopped painting altogether.

His first teaching job at Northampton Grammar School where he worked and taught pupils, including actor/artist Jonathan Adams, of whom he completed a portrait. While here he painted until he retired. He would often paint reproductions of famous paintings to illustrate his lessons; the sets for the schools regular theatrical productions would be designed, painted and constructed in his art room.