Walter Hoyle

Walter Hoyle (1922–2000) was an English artist, known for his prints, watercolours and illustration. He was a central figure in the Great Bardfield group of artists and a close associate of Edward Bawden. He taught at the Central School, London, and, for twenty years, at the Cambridge School of Art.

Walter Hoyle was born in Rishton, Lancashire in 1922. He studied at Beckenham School of Art from 1938 and took up a place at the Royal College of Art (RCA) in 1940. His studies were interrupted by war service as an army medical orderly from 1942. Following a prolonged demobilisation, he returned to the RCA in 1947.

In 1949, Hoyle took up a funded place to study mosaics at the Byzantine Institute of America in Istanbul, prompting an interest in Byzantine colour and design. On returning to the RCA for a post-graduate year, Hoyle met Edward Bawden who became a friend and major influence.

In 1950, Bawden asked Hoyle, along with Sheila Robinson, to help with the completion of his Country Life mural for the Lion and Unicorn pavilion at the Festival of Britain. The next year Bawden invited Hoyle to accompany him on a painting holiday to Sicily. Hoyle's resulting paintings were exhibited at the Leicester Galleries, London, in 1952 alongside work by Terry Frost. After his retirement, Hoyle wrote a memoir of this trip, To Sicily with Edward Bawden, which was published as an illustrated limited edition in 1998. A copy of both this limited edition and Hoyle's manuscript are held by the Fry Art Gallery, Saffron Walden; a copy of the manuscript is held by the Tate Gallery.

In 1952, Hoyle moved to Great Bardfield, Essex, where Bawden was one amongst a number of artist residents. Hoyle took part in the Great Bardfield Open House exhibitions in 1954, 1955 and 1958 (designing the catalogue cover for the 1958 exhibition. At the first of these he met his French-born wife, Denise. Their children, James and Nina were born in 1956 and 1960 respectively. In 1957, the family moved to the neighbouring village of Great Saling.

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