Collection: Roland Batchelor   1889 - 1990 

Born in Chelsea, London, Roland Batchelor studied under the Punch artist George Morrow at Putney, and then at Regent Street Polytechnic, Central School of Arts and Crafts, and the City and Guilds Art School.

In 1905 he began work as a civil servant in the Customs and Excise Department after his father insisted that he get a ‘proper’ job. However, he continued to paint and draw and visited France frequently from where he gained much of his inspiration.

He much admired the work of Daumier, Rowlandson, Turner and Rembrandt and enjoyed observing people in everyday life, recording scenes and incidents in an anecdotal manner. He showed work regularly at the Royal Academy, the Royal Institute of Painters in Watercolours and the Royal Society of Watercolour Painters, becoming a member of the latter in 1966.