Artist Information
Artist
Wilfred René Wood (1888-1976)Role
ArtistDate made
n.d.Time Period
20th CenturyNotes
ARTIST BIOGRAPHY
Born south of Manchester, England, Wilfrid René Wood was a British engraver and watercolourist. He is best known for painting of urban landscapes of British towns. His mother was an artist and his father a surgical instrument maker. He studied art at the Manchester School of Art, the Central School of Arts and Crafts and the Slade School of Fine Art in London.
During World War I, he enlisted in the Artists' Rifles* and was commissioned in the Machine Gun Corps, serving in France, Flanders and Italy and continued sketching during his war service. After the war, he lived in Hampstead, London, creating a series of posters for the London Underground and after his marriage in 1937 he moved to Barnack in Cambridgeshire. Woods works are found in the Wilfrid Wood Gallery at the Stamford Arts Centre and the Wilfrid Wood Hall in Barnack.
*Extract from National Army Museum "The artists of the Artists Rifles" by P. Baty, 2018. (https://www.nam.ac.uk/whats-on/artists-artists-rifles)
"The Artists Rifles was perhaps the most curious regiment in the British Army. It was formed in 1860 by a group of painters, architects, poets, sculptors, musicians and actors concerned about a possible French invasion. The Pre-Raphaelites were early members as were William Morris, Frederic Leighton and even the poet Algernon Swinburne.
The regiment was the natural choice for young men of an artistic persuasion at the outbreak of war in 1914. Artists like John and Paul Nash, the poets Edward Thomas and Wilfred Owen, and the playwright Noël Coward wore the uniform of the Artists Rifles.
In view of the calibre of men serving in its ranks, it became an officer-producing unit in 1915 and turned out over 10,000 officers for service in other regiments during the First World War."
