Biography
John Raphael Patrick Charles Grome (b. London 1911 – d. 2004) initially studied at Goldsmiths’ College under Clive Gardiner. After teaching at a choir school in Durham, Grome joined the Royal Fusiliers and went to India for five years. His mother helped him buy himself out of the Army and during WW2, he was a conscientious objector, driving an ambulance in the Blitz. After the war, he lived in Chelsea and was friends with the artist Mervyn Peake, poet Dylan Thomas and writer Stephen Spender. He gave life classes to well-known actors, including Alec Guinness. Having met the realist Italian painter Renato Guttuso in London, he went to Italy in 1947 where he settled and in 1950 married Mave Beadle and had three children. In 1965 they moved to London and Grome taught at Hornsey School of Art. He later returned to Italy where his artist friends included Corrado Cagli, Carlo Levi and Sergio Donnini. He occasionally exhibited at Galleria San Marco, Rome (1955), Opera Theatre Gallery, Parma (1964), Galleria Angolare, Milan (1972) and Galleria La Gradiva, Rome (1985).
