Biography
Gerald William Clifford Wilde (b. 1905 London, UK - d. Cudham, Kent, UK 1986) attended Chelsea School of Art, 1926–31, and 1932–4, under Percy Hague Jowett and H S Williamson. His teachers Henry Moore and Graham Sutherland were strong advocates of Wilde’s work, as were the critics John Berger and David Sylvester, despite difficulties from losing an eye during childhood and mental health problems layyert on in life. He also had a setback during the Blitz when all his work was destroyed but he was still able to have first solo show at the Hanover Gallery in 1948 and later with the AIA, NEAC, The London Group and elsewhere. Sir Edward Marsh (1872-1953), Kenneth Clark (1903 -1983) and Peter Watson (1908-1956) were early collectors and in 1951 he was commissioned to design the cover for the catalogue of the Festival of Britain show Sixty Paintings for ’51.
An amusing cameo of him is contained in the autobiogrpahy of Nicolette Devas, daughter of the Irish painter and poet, Francis Macnamara (1884-1946) and whose sister, Caitlin, married Dylan Thomas, Two Flamboyant Fathers (1966). The ICA gave Wilde a retrospective in 1955 and the October Gallery another in 1988, with a further show in 2002, and one at The Millinery Works, 2004. The latter exhibition included Wilde’s striking gouache on paper The Art Critic David Sylvester. Wilde has been mistakenly identified as the dramatist Oscar Wilde’s son, also as the model for Gulley Jimson in Joyce Cary’s 1944 novel The Horse’s Mouth, although he did know Cary.
