George Downs

George Downs studied wood engraving at the Central School with John Farleigh, who reproduced an abstract figurative print of his in Graven Image (1940). Fellow students in Farleigh's class included Margaret Levetus, Hilary Stebbing, Eve Sheldon-Williams, Monica Walker, John Parsons and Roderic Barrett. Downs also studied lithography, and attended the illustration class under Noel Rooke, who awarded him a prize for a competition to illustrate a story called 'Under the Bridge'.
An Army Non-Combatant for six and a half years, he illustrated for the Cambridge and the Sylvan Press, using mainly line drawings. After the War he drifted into the theatre world and, for forty-five years, ran a theatrical costume business in the West End of London. A stroke and a car accident put an end to this work.
A sculptural relief of Ophelia is displayed in the Green Room at the Globe Theatre.
Author: JS