George Lewis - by Milein Cosman

I met George through my friend Marie-Louise von Motesiczky many years ago and, although essentially a very private man, got to know him well. He did an enormous amount of work for me, in my house and garden, over the years of our friendship. George was one of the most impressive and congenial people I’ve known. He was an immensely gifted and sensitive artist, with a deep understanding and appreciation of the works of past masters, as well as being an immensely gifted and sensitive artist himself. I always found it a shame that he hid his light under a bushel to such an extraordinary extent, but this was entirely typical of his humility, and I’m delighted to hear that some of his work will at last be displayed in Hampstead. He was a wholly civilised human being – highly intelligent, always helpful, and with a wonderfully dry (typically English) sense of humour.

George Lewis was born in 1943 and educated at Tiffins Grammar School in Kingston. He went on to study at the Slade School of Art in the early 1960s. Lewis left the Slade to travel and write returning to London in the 1970s.  In 1975 he moved to Hampstead and began to paint again. His key influences were Poussin, Chardin and Velasquez. Another major influence at this time was the artist Marie-Louise von Motesiczky. During this period he exhibited at the ARnolfini in Bristol and London.  He died in 2013 after a long battle with cancer.