OBITUARY: Wilfred Fairclough

Wilfred Fairclough was a singularly gifted and determined man and artist. Only in 1994, when he was 87, did his age begin to overtake him. He had worked harder since he retired from the Kingston Polytechnic in 1972 than most people do in their working lives. What he wanted to do above all things was to etch, and to make watercolours. Year by year his work was sold at the Royal Society of Painter-Etchers, the Royal Watercolour Society and the Royal Academy.

Born in 1907 in Blackburn, he overcame a tough early life to secure, in 1931, a place at the Royal College of Art. There he was superbly taught by Malcolm Osborne and R.S. (Bob) Austin. Through those years of the Depression, Fairclough mastered his craft as a printmaker. In January 1934 he was elected an associate of the Royal Society of Painter-Etchers and won the Rome Scholarship in Engraving: "What a week," Austin exclaimed. Thus, while the print market was depressed, Fairclough travelled and worked first in Rome, and then in Spain on the eve of the civil war.

In 1938 he gained a job teaching at the Kingston College of Art (later the Kingston Poly). Before he was called up for war service in the RAF, he worked for Arnold Palmer on Recording Britain, a nationwide survey to which he was one of the most prolific contributors, concentrating on the buildings of Petersham, in Surrey.

In 1942 he worked at RAF Medmenham on models which were used for the Dambusters' raid on the Mohne dam; and he briefly served in India at the end of the war. Returning to Kingston he eventually became, in 1962, Principal of the College of Art, and then Assistant Director of the Kingston Polytechnic and Head of the Division of Design from 1970 until 1972. Although he took justifiable pride in his achievements as teacher and administrator, what mattered most to him was his own work, not only as an etcher but also as a watercolourist, a skill in which he was self-taught, influenced by his admiration for J.M.W. Turner.

All the time that he was teaching Fairclough had kept his interest in etching alive, producing a plate every year, but after he retired he would complete as many as four each year. The long period of eclipse led on to an Indian summer. From 1972 until 1994 he produced 69 etchings, nearly as many as he had done in the previous 40 years. These reveal a command of his craft which few, if any, can now equal. From his traditional training, he was a master of the etching needle, the copper plate and the acid bath. He could produce the richest sensuous tone of black, those velvety blacks which are so typical of his work at its best, contrasted with white tulle and every gradation in between.

For Venice he had a particular affection which replaced his earlier love for Rome. There the traffic had prevented his sketching in 1961, the year in which he received a grant from the Leverhulme Foundation. He spent three weeks in Venice sketching in the heat. He drew on these sketches until the end of his working life.

His record of the city is masterly, whether he is depicting the cafes, bars or restaurants, scenes from the Carnival, views of the city and lagoon, or of concerts in the churches. Of his studies of restaurants none is more evocative than his Lunch at Torcello (1979), which captures the flavour of the Locanda Cipriani and the island which lies, alluringly, outside.

Those who visited Fairclough in his studio would find an exhibition prepared on his easels of recent etchings and watercolours. The latter might be of Switzerland or the Lake District, or more recently, of Corfe in Dorset, blue and autumnal, or a finally unfinished sketch of St David's in Pembrokeshire. He loved his excursions with his wife, Joan Vernon-Cryer, also a watercolourist of distinction, or with their son Michael, like his wife Mary Malenoir a Rome Scholar in Engraving and a printmaker; or with their daughter Celia, whom he painted as a young student of ballet.

Wilfred Fairclough was articulate. He wrote excellent letters. He never lost his Lancastrian independence and outspokenness. He was hospitable, good company, fully as creative as he was hard-working, and has left an abundance of first- class work behind him.

Ian Lowe

Wilfred Fairclough, artist: born Blackburn 13 June 1907; ARCA 1933; ARE 1934, RE 1946; Principal, Kingston College of Art 1962-70; RWS 1968; Assistant Director, Kingston Polytechnic 1970-72; married 1936 Joan Cryer (one son, one daughter); died Kingston-on-Thames 8 January 1996.