Anthony Gross

Anthony Gross was of Hungarian-Irish descent, and his sister Phyllis Isobella Pearsall later became a famous writer. Gross studied at Repton and Slade, and later at Paris and Madrid. After his marriage to French fashion artist Marcelle Florenty he went to France where he created a number of animated films, returning to Britain in 1934, where he painted and created graphics.

During World War II Gross was an Official War Artist. He painted within the Egyptian, Syrian, Palestinian, Kurdistan, Lebanese, and Mesopotamian theatres of war. He was also involved in the D-Day landing of the Allied troops on Normandy and painted beachscapes. After World War II Gross returned to London where he mainly produced lithographs, sharing his time between London and Le Boulvé in France. His extensive travels abroad inspired him over and over again.

Cricket Match on Kew Garden is probably a study (watercolor, pen, pencil, 67.3 x 94 cm) for the 1951 lithograph The Cricket Match. It was commissioned for the store of Lyons Tea company. The Serpentine, of a lake in London’s Hyde Park, where recreational sports are possible and occasional sporting events take place, is shown in the 1948 catalog. The lithograph (21.0 x 31.8 cm) Burgundy Canal - or “Canal de Bourgogne” – from 1937 shows anglers on this waterway in southeastern France. Copies can be found in the Tate Gallery and the British Museum, amongst others.

Gross’ contribution to the 1952 Art Exhibition was Herne Bay Pier (75 x 98 cm), one of 16 color lithographs commissioned in 1947 by the restaurant chain J. Lyons & Co. Ltd.