William Coldstream

[close] Sir William Menzies Coldstream, CBE (1908 - 1987) was an English realist painter and a long-standing art teacher.

Coldstream was born at Belford, Northumberland, in northern England, the second son of country doctor George Probyn Coldstream and his wife (Susan Jane) Lilian. His mother's family were Scottish landed gentry. He grew up in London, where he was privately educated, then studied at the Slade School of Fine Art between 1926 and 1929. In 1931 he joined the London Artists' Association and then, two years later, the London Group. In 1934, Coldstream joined the GPO Film Unit to make documentary films with John Grierson.

At the start of World War Two Coldstream enlisted in the Royal Artillery before transferring to the Royal Engineers. At first he served as a gunner with a training regiment near Dover and then, from 1940 until 1943 was a camouflage officer with Camouflage Command in Farnham and later in Bristol. In 1943, the War Artists' Advisory Committee, WWAC, offered Coldstream a full-time commission. Due to his slow means of working, Coldstream only produced nine pictures during his WAAC commission.

In November 1945, he became a visiting teacher at Camberwell School of Arts and Crafts, and later its Professor. In 1949 he returned to lead the Slade School as Principal, and Professor of Fine Art. Under his direction the Slade achieved an international reputation.