© the artist's estate. Image credit: Hereford Museum and Art Gallery
The East London Group emerged out of evening art classes held in Bethnal Green and Mile End during the 1920s and 1930s. The classes, attended by mostly working-class artists, were run by John Cooper who had studied at the Slade School of Art alongside Walter Sickert, who also taught classes – both encouraged a focus on local urban life. The Group exhibited at the Whitechapel Art Gallery and Tate, with Cooper organising a contract with the Lefevre Gallery in Mayfair which lasted from 1929–1936.
The main participants were Elwin Hawthorne, Walter and Harold Steggles, Albert Turpin, Cecil Osborne, Grace Oscroft, Phyllis Bray and Brynhild Parker.
