A neo-Romantic and Modernist
JOHN PIPER was one of the most diverse and best-loved of English Modern artists. In retrospect, he can be regarded in many ways as a bundle of contradictions, being simultaneously an old-fashioned romantic and an antiquarian with a penchant for the Ballets Russes and avant-garde French painting. The fact that he was able to meld his diverse tastes and interests into a single, albeit multi-faceted, aesthetic is a lasting tribute to his energy and vision and places him as one of the great British polymaths of the 20th century.
As a direct result of his eldest brother being killed in the second battle of Ypres in 1915, Piper was obliged, despite his wish to go to art school, to fill his brother’s place and join the family law firm. This was a career for which he was singularly unsuited and his failure to pass the Law Society’s examination created
