Biography
Kenneth Green (b. Hoddesdon, Hertfordshire, UK 1905 - d. London 1986) spent most of his childhood in Suffolk becoming a pupil of the local landscape artist, Harry Becker (1865-1928). He was educated at Christ's Hospital School, Ipswich and studied at the Slade School of Fine Art 1922-4, where his teachers included Henry Tonks (1862-1937); winning a Slade scholarship in 1923. He painted many portraits including the composer Benjamin Britten, Cecil Day Lewis and Sybil Thorndike. He travelled extensively painting landscapes in Cairo, the Aegean, Dordogne and Russia. His first solo exhibition was held at the Arlington Galleries in 1928. In the early 1930s he visited the USA and exhibited at the Feragil Galleries, New York. An exhibition at the Storran Gallery in 1937 showed his work completed at Glyndebourne Opera from 1935. He was director of art at Wellington College, 1938-45 and during that period designed costumes and scenery for Cosi Fan Tutte at Sadler's Wells and 'Peter Grimes' in 1945. He exhibited regularly at the Royal Academy from 1925-57; with the National Society of Painters, 1946-62 and also showed with the New English Art Club, Royal Society of Portrait Painters and the Royal Society of British Artists. A retrospective was held at Kettle's Yard, Cambridge in 1972. His work is held in the National Portrait Gallery and galleries in Birmingham, Bradford and Leeds.
