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The artist explains: 'Arthur was a familiar figure in the streets near my studio in Battersea in south London, which is how I got to know him. Usually he was pushing a supermarket trolley full of old dressing-up clothes. Sometimes he’d be wearing a Santa Claus outfit and blowing a bugle. I button-holed him and asked if l could paint his picture. We got to know each other as I painted several pictures of him. He didn’t always make much sense and had obviously not been very well for some time. He spoke about the war and about his job as a cook in the army. He also talked in a confused way about the terrible suffering he’d seen, and how he was going to fight on and not give up. He didn’t get close to people, but he let me visit his flat, which was full of things he had hoarded over the years: old bicycles, carpets, books and piles and piles of rubbish.
I didn’t see or hear from him for a while. Then I got a phone call from a hospital saying that Arthur had been admitted. They had been through his pockets and found my phone number. He was obviously in a bad way, so I rushed along to the hospital. He died about 10 minutes later. It was as though he had been waiting for me.'
Royal Society of Portrait Painters People's Portraits collection at Girton College, University of Cambridge
Cambridge
Title
Arthur Gathercole, Vagrant
Date
1997 (?)
Medium
oil on canvas
Measurements
H 58 x W 41 cm
Accession number
473
Acquisition method
on loan from the Royal Society of Portrait Painters
Work type
Painting
Royal Society of Portrait Painters People's Portraits collection at Girton College, University of Cambridge
Huntingdon Road, Cambridge, Cambridgeshire CB3 0JG England
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Lord Cohen of Birkenhead (1900–1977), CH University of Hull Art Collection -
Dr Bertram Lyle Rathbone (d.2003) Victoria Gallery & Museum -
Arthur Gathercole, Vagrant Royal Society of Portrait Painters People's Portraits collection at Girton College, University of Cambridge -
Edward John Peregrine Cust (b.1936), 7th Baron Brownlow, CStJ National Trust, Belton House -
Professor Laurence Martin, Vice-Chancellor, University of Newcastle upon Tyne (1978–1990) Newcastle University -
Basil N. Reckitt (1905–2005), TD University of Hull Art Collection -
Philip William Bryce Lever (1915–2000), 3rd Viscount Leverhulme, Chancellor of the University of Liverpool (1980–1993) Victoria Gallery & Museum - 6 more