Alan Sorrell

Alan Sorrell (1904 – 1974) was born in Southend, the son of a jeweller, who would take him drawing at an early age. He was trained at the Royal College of Art (1924-27), and then won a scholarship to the British School of Rome (1928-1930). He was a Senior Assistant Instructor of Drawing at the Royal College of Art from 1931-39 and 1946-48. In 1937 he was elected a member of the Royal Watercolour Society. He married the watercolour artist Elizabeth Tanner in 1947, and they had three children, Richard born in 1948, Mark born in 1952, and Julia born in 1955.

Sorell initially hoped to develop a career in mural painting, and his murals can be seen at Southend, Harlow, Bexhill, Cecil Rhodes Memorial Museum, Bishops Stortford (The Oxford Room), Warwick Oken School ('The Seasons'), Roman House, London, and Liverpool (Festival of Britain commissions). Other commissioned works included Progress paintings of Hinkley Point Atomic Power Station and for ICI, Drawings of Nubia (1962, now at the Beecroft Art Gallery, Southend), drawings of Oxford (1964). He served in the RAF from 1939-46, first as a camouflage officer, and later on in the war he produced aerial views for bombing missions such as that against the Tirpitz. Some of his wartime drawings were purchased by the War Artist Commission, and are in the Tate (No 5731, Mulberry Harbour) and Imperial War Museum. He has subsequently been grouped with the British Neo-Romantics in the exhibitions: 'The British Neo-Romantics 1935-1950' at the National Museum of Wales (1983) and 'A Paradise Lost: The Neo-Romantic Imagination in Britain 1935-1955' at the Barbican (1987).

Alan Sorrell is now mainly remembered for his archaeological illustrations, particularly his detailed reconstructions of Roman Britain. As Professor Barry Cunliffe wrote:

To those of us whose interests were kindled and nurtured by the remarkable wave of popular archaeology in the 1950's the name of Alan Sorrell was as well known as those of Glyn Daniel and Sir Mortimer Wheeler. All were experts and scholars in their own fields and all were using their powers of communication to breathe life into the unprepossessing rubble foundations and dreary potsherds that formed the raw material of archaeological research.

He began his archaeological reconstruction drawings before the war at Maiden Castle, in collaboration with Mortimer Wheeler, and at Roman Caerwent and Carleon, in collaboration with Cyril Fox and V. E. Nash-Williams of the National Museum of Wales. After the war this archaeological work was to take up more and more of his time with commissions from archaeologists such as Prof. Grimes (the London Mithraeum), the Illustrated London News and later on a more official basis for the Ministry of Works. Public awareness of his work was increased by his prolific output and his many publications, starting with 'Roman Britain' (1961), as well drawings commissioned for TV series such as 'Who Were the British' (Anglia TV). It is probably the case that this archaeological work has led to more of Alan Sorrell's work being in public collections than any other 20th century artist.

Throughout this post-war period he still found time for his more imaginative work which was exhibited at the RWS, the RA and other exhibitions. The titles were often evocative such as 'The Fallen Emperors', 'The Stone Men' & 'The Dark Tower'. A strong characteristic of these paintings is ‘a sense of the decay of a noble past, and this and their treatment, in its starkness and drama, links them inevitably with his archaeological drawings’ (Mark Sorrell, from ‘Reconstructing the Past’).

Publications

• Latinum A reader for the first stage of Latin by C.B. Robinson with illustrations by Alan Sorrell, Cambridge at the University Press, 1940
• Roman Britain text by Aileen Fox, drawings by Alan Sorrell, Lutterworth Press, London 1961
• Saxon England text by John Hamilton, drawings by Alan Sorrel, Lutterworth Press, London 1964
• Living History, text and drawings by Alan Sorrell, B T Batsfords Ltd' London 1965
• Norman Britain text by Henry Loyn, drawings by Alan Sorrell, Lutterworth Press, London 1966
• Prehistoric Britain text by Barbara Green, drawings by Alan Sorrell, Lutterworth Press, London 1968
• The Holy Bible, Revised Standard Version Colour illustrations by Alan Sorrell, William Collins & Sons, London 1968 ISBN 0 7188 1766 4
• Imperial Rome, text and drawings by Alan Sorrell, Lutterworth Press, London 1970 ISBN 0 7188 1367 7
• Stories from Livy by R.M. Ogilvie, original drawings and maps by Alan Sorrell, Oxford University Press, 1970
• Nubia: A Drowning Land text by Margaret Drower, paintings by Alan Sorrell, Longmans, London & Harlow 1970 ISBN 582 16440 0
• British Castles text and illustrations by Alan Sorrell, B T Batsford Ltd, London 1973 ISBN 07134 1119 8
• Roman Towns in Britain text and illustrations by Alan Sorrell, forward by Dr Graham Webster, B T Batsford Ltd, London 1976 ISBN 0 1734 3237 3
• Medieval Britain Drawing by Alan Sorrell & Richard Sorrell, Lutterworth Press London 1978
• Reconstructing the Past by Alan Sorrell, edited by Mark Sorrell, Batsfords, 1981, ISBN 0 7134 1588 6