Graham Sutherland was born in Streatham, London in 1903. He attended Goldsmiths College School of Art, specialising in engraving and etching, and became a member of the Royal Society of Painter-Etchers and Engravers in 1926. After a visit to Pembrokeshire in Wales in 1935 he made the transition to painter and his first solo exhibition of his oil paintings were mainly Welsh landscapes. He became an official war artist during the Second World War, painting graphic scenes of the bomb devastation. Recognised as an outstanding painter of his generation Graham exhibited in leading galleries throughout the world, painted the portrait of many famous people including Sir Winston Churchill and was awarded the Order of Merit in 1960. He died in February 1980.