Biography
Nicholas Horsfield (b. New Malden, Surrey, UK 1917 - d. Liverpool, UK 2005) studied at the Royal College of Art, 1935–8, under Sir William Rothenstein, Percy Jowett and Gilbert Spencer but lost his artwork in a fire at his studio barn in Surrey in 1937 and went to teach English in the Berlitz school in Leipzig. He did not resume painting until 1946. After war service in India, 1939–46, he became the Arts Council regional officer for visual arts for the northwest region in Manchester from 1948 until it closed in 1956. From 1956–77 Horsfield lectured at Liverpool College of Art/Liverpool Polytechnic, then became part-time faculty tutor in life drawing, 1977–82. Horsfield was a member of Liverpool Academy of Art from 1954, being president, 1960–5, and was also a member of Merseyside Contemporary Artists. Solo shows included Bluecoat Chambers, Liverpool, from 1963; University of Sheffield, 1974; University of Durham, 1975; and Chateau Musée in Dieppe and Camden Arts Centre, 1984.
During the 1950s he would stay wth The Guardian art critic, John Willett, in Dieppe and, like Sickert before him, Normandy became a recurring subject as did the landscape of the Crosby area of Liverpool. Arts Council, Liverpool University, Atkinson Art Gallery in Southport, Manchester City Art Galleries, Chateau Musée and Walker Art Gallery in Liverpool (which gave Horsfield a retrospective in 1997) hold examples. An exhibition of his figurative drawings and paintings was held at the University of Liverpool in 2005 shortly before his death.
