Charles Mozley

Charles Mozley
Born	(1914-05-29)29 May 1914 Darnall, Sheffield
Died	Kew, London
Nationality	British
Education	Sheffield School of Art Camberwell School of Arts and Crafts
Known for	Painting and illustrations
Spouse(s)	Eileen Kohn (1910–1989) (m. 1938); 5 children

Charles Alfred Mozley (29 May 1914, Darnall, Sheffield – 11 January 1991, Kew, London) was a British artist who was also a teacher. He was a prolific book illustrator and designer of book covers, posters and prints.

Biography

Mozley was born in Sheffield and, while still a schoolboy, attended the Sheffield School of Art. An exhibition of his artworks were held at the Hibbert Brothers Gallery in the city in 1933. After spending 1933 teaching in Sheffield, Mozley won a scholarship to the Royal College of Art, RCA, in 1934. When he left the RCA in 1937, Mozley taught life drawing, anatomy and lithography at the Camberwell School of Arts and Crafts.

File:Invasion Preparations in an English Village Art.IWMART15546.jpg

Invasion Preparations in an English Village (Art.IWM ART 15546)

At the start of the Second World War, Mozley joined the British Army and worked for military intelligence and on camouflage designs. In 1940, Mozley submitted a number of works to the War Artists' Advisory Committee. The Committee purchased one of these pieces, A Kentish Lane, 1940 and also issued Mozley with a wartime sketching permit which allowed him to paint outdoors, mainly in London and Plymouth, during the conflict. WAAC purchased at least one further work from Mozley in June 1944. Mozley was in the Royal Engineers, and retired with the rank of Acting Lieutenant-Colonel.

After the War, Mozley established himself as a prolific commercial artist working in different techniques. He designed film posters for Alexander Korda, theatre posters for the Lyric Theatre in Hammersmith and worked on mural designs for the Festival of Britain. As well as designing hundreds of book covers, Mozley created book illustrations for the Limited Editions Club of New York, the publishers Chatto and Windus and for the Folio Society. Mozley also designed posters for the London Underground. In 1979, a retrospective of Mozley's work was held at the King Street Gallery in London and his drawings of Venice were exhibited at Somerset House in support of the Venice in Peril fund. A retrospective exhibition of Mozley's lithographic work was held at the Barbican Centre library in 2002, eleven years after his death from heart failure at his home in Kew. The same year, Grey College in Durham also hosted an overview of his career. Three years later, the Barbican Centre held a exhibition of his artworks.

Marriage and children

Mozley met Eileen Kohn, also an artist, at the RCA in the 1930s, and married her in 1938. They had two sons and three daughters. His wife pre-deceased him, dying in 1989. His younger son, Anthony Mozley, was elected to Richmond upon Thames Borough Council as a Conservative in 1978, and served as a councillor until 1982, when he lost his seat.

External links

• Paintings by Charles Mozley at the Art UK site
• Works by Mozley in the London Transport Museum collection