James Lawrence Isherwood

Born into a family of cobblers in Wigan, Isherwood toiled in the shop until released by his father’s death in the 1950s. Largely self taught, Isherwood studied art on a part time basis at Wigan’s Mining and Technical College from 1933 until 1940. He was elected Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts in 1955. He said many of his best prolific Expressionist/Impressionist-style works were painted under the influence of alcohol. An artist of considerable talent, he was unique as he copied no-one. Art was the driving force for his existence. His motto was ‘Nature I love, and next to nature, Art’. Always short of money, Isherwood travelled the country in his unreliable red van, usually accompanied by his beloved mother, Lily. He liked to pitch up at art colleges, give impromptu tutorials, and display his works in roadside locations all over the country. He usually paid for his hotel rooms, goods and motoring fines with a painting. He was a friend of the artist L. S. Lowry, who purchased his ‘Minnie Small with Cat’ . Other known collectors include Prince Charles. The former Director General of the BBC, Hugh Greene, commissioned a portrait of campaigner, Mary Whitehouse (his vociferous critic); Isherwood depicted her with five breasts giving the painting a playful title, ‘Sanctity’. Greene allegedly hung the painting in his office to throw things at it. Isherwood’s oil paintings of the footballer George Best with breasts, a nude study of the singer Dusty Springfield and one of John Lennon hanging from a cross, caused public outrage. In the early 1960s, he appeared on ITV painting with his feet. Isherwood was a flawed genius who led a controversial and reckless life. He was known locally as ‘the eccentric artist’ as he shambled his way around town, often unkempt. A failed marriage, and the death of his devoted mother in 1971, drove him to utter despair and to heavier drinking. His work didn’t become commercially successful until after his death. It would then be seen for what it is – unique. In 1974, the BBC made a documentary, ‘I am Isherwood’ for transmission that year and repeated in 1975. His art is now widely collected - his popular Scottish, Venice, Wigan and London scenes are his most sought after works.