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Some artists are blessed with so many creative talents and abilities that both their contemporaries and posterity are almost in awe of such exceptional talent in the face of their wealth of successes, achievements and awards. Among these geniuses, so richly kissed by the muse, so lavishly favoured by fate and still highly respected today, was the English painter and illustrator as well as decorator and set designer George Sheringham, who was the first recipient of the "Royal Designers for Industry" award of the "Royal Society of Arts" in 1937, and who was still being adequately officially honoured shortly before his death. The son of an Anglican priest and school principal at Christ Church in Marylebone, he received his training at the King's School in Gloucester, the Slade School of Fine Art and the Sorbonne in Paris. As a young man, he was able to present his works at collective and individual exhibitions in Paris, Venice, Brussels and Berlin as well as London, Melbourne and New York from 1905 onwards.
George Sheringham was a veritable and almost untiring workhorse and designed numerous sets and costumes for ballet, opera and theatre, for example for performances and productions of the world-famous classics The Lady of the Camellias, Othello, What You Will, Hamlet, H.M.S. Pinafore, The Pirates of Penzance, Patience or Bunthorne's Bride and Trial by Jury, which were frenetically acclaimed by the audience. As a decorator at least as much in demand, Sheringham designed the music room at Devonshire House and a number of paintings for Seaford House and the ballroom at Claridge's Hotel in London, as well as part of the British Pavilion at the 1937 Paris World's Fair. He was also a very enterprising pioneer of self-marketing, and in the early 1920s he also created commercial designs in series for the home decoration of wealthy citizens' homes. As if Sheringham had not yet been fully occupied with these numerous demanding activities, he also illustrated books by Max Beerbohm, Edmond Rostand, and Cyrus MacMillan.
Sheringham even made a good name for himself as a designer of fans. In 1921 he worked with his brother Hugh, who was employed as a fishing editor at the traditional sports magazine "The Field", on a book about fly fishing, "The Book of the Fly Rod". At the same time he also published articles about drawing in the magazine "Pen and Pencil", gave the book "Design in the Theatre" in 1927 and in 1928 with Rupert Mason and R. Boyd Morrison the highly acclaimed work "Robes of Thespis. Costume Designs by Modern Artists". His works were also part of the painting and art competition at the 1932 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles, California in the USA. In 1925 he had already been awarded the "Grand Prix" for mural painting and theatre design in the Paris Salon. The permanently too high workload, however, took its toll on George Sheringham towards the end of his relatively short, but also incredibly intense and eventful life. From 1932 his general state of health became worse and worse, as an invalid he drew some still lifes with flowers and died on 11 November 1937 only two days before his 53rd birthday in his own house in Hampstead.
Some artists are blessed with so many creative talents and abilities that both their contemporaries and posterity are almost in awe of such exceptional talent in the face of their wealth of successes, achievements and awards. Among these geniuses, so richly kissed by the muse, so lavishly favoured by fate and still highly respected today, was the English painter and illustrator as well as decorator and set designer George Sheringham, who was the first recipient of the "Royal Designers for Industry" award of the "Royal Society of Arts" in 1937, and who was still being adequately officially honoured shortly before his death. The son of an Anglican priest and school principal at Christ Church in Marylebone, he received his training at the King's School in Gloucester, the Slade School of Fine Art and the Sorbonne in Paris. As a young man, he was able to present his works at collective and individual exhibitions in Paris, Venice, Brussels and Berlin as well as London, Melbourne and New York from 1905 onwards.
George Sheringham was a veritable and almost untiring workhorse and designed numerous sets and costumes for ballet, opera and theatre, for example for performances and productions of the world-famous classics The Lady of the Camellias, Othello, What You Will, Hamlet, H.M.S. Pinafore, The Pirates of Penzance, Patience or Bunthorne's Bride and Trial by Jury, which were frenetically acclaimed by the audience. As a decorator at least as much in demand, Sheringham designed the music room at Devonshire House and a number of paintings for Seaford House and the ballroom at Claridge's Hotel in London, as well as part of the British Pavilion at the 1937 Paris World's Fair. He was also a very enterprising pioneer of self-marketing, and in the early 1920s he also created commercial designs in series for the home decoration of wealthy citizens' homes. As if Sheringham had not yet been fully occupied with these numerous demanding activities, he also illustrated books by Max Beerbohm, Edmond Rostand, and Cyrus MacMillan.
Sheringham even made a good name for himself as a designer of fans. In 1921 he worked with his brother Hugh, who was employed as a fishing editor at the traditional sports magazine "The Field", on a book about fly fishing, "The Book of the Fly Rod". At the same time he also published articles about drawing in the magazine "Pen and Pencil", gave the book "Design in the Theatre" in 1927 and in 1928 with Rupert Mason and R. Boyd Morrison the highly acclaimed work "Robes of Thespis. Costume Designs by Modern Artists". His works were also part of the painting and art competition at the 1932 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles, California in the USA. In 1925 he had already been awarded the "Grand Prix" for mural painting and theatre design in the Paris Salon. The permanently too high workload, however, took its toll on George Sheringham towards the end of his relatively short, but also incredibly intense and eventful life. From 1932 his general state of health became worse and worse, as an invalid he drew some still lifes with flowers and died on 11 November 1937 only two days before his 53rd birthday in his own house in Hampstead.