A Long Day

This humorous painting captures the artist's perspective of ‘A long Day’ with a man asleep on the train as he commutes in and out of the city, with the obscured face the artist suggests an anonymity to the man who is one of many making the daily journey.

On the back of the frame is an exhibition label from the late The Phoenix Gallery in Lavenham, which opened in Suffolk in 1952 by Ronald McCausland-White (1908-1980) which held many important exhibitions. Many of the artists the gallery promoted were eminent Royal Academicians of their day.

Reginald Brill
Although born in Lewisham in 1902, Reginald Brill spent his early years in Yorkshire. His first artistic education was at Harrogate School of Art and Design, before he returned to London in his early teenage years, just before the end of WW1. He worked a variety of clerical jobs to afford evening classes at St Martin’s School of Art. In 1920, he won a scholarship to the Slade School and studied under Henry Tonks.

After leaving the Slade, Brill was patronised by Christopher Hatton Turnor in Lincolnshire and painted a number of murals for him before returning to London. He won the Prix de Rome in Decorative Painting for a depiction of the ‘Expulsion of Eden’ and took up residence at the British School in Rome between 1927 and 1929. Upon returning to England, he taught at the Black Heath School of Art and also spent three months painting in Cairo and Alexandria by invitation of the Egyptian Government. Whilst in Egypt, Brill was patronised by Colonel Thomas Gayer-Anderson.

Brill was appointed to the School of Art in Kingston upon Thames in 1934, finding it to be a disorganised institution. Within five years, he had revolutionised its teaching approach and by the end of the Second World War, the school was so well-reputed that there was a waiting list for places. Under his watch, the school grew rapidly and is, to this day, a part of Kingston University. Additionally, Brill published two educational Books - Modern Painting and Art as a Career. He also exhibited at the Royal Academy, Leicester Galleries and local galleries in Lavenham.

Brill is best known for his ‘Matyrdom of Man’ works - a series of paintings depicting ordinary people at work. This theme of depicting the working classes was common across all of his works, leading to Brill being defined as a socialist realist narrative painter - his work was well appreciated by his contemporaries for its ability to convey the lifestyles of the working classes in 1950s England. Brill also produced skilled topographical scenes of Kingston upon Thames.

Gayer-Anderson (one of Brill’s earlier patrons) bequeathed his home - The Little Hall - in Lavenham to Kingston Art School to use as a hostel for art students. When Brill retired in 1962, he moved to Lavenham and became a warden at The Little Hall, alongside his wife. He held a studio at Lavenham Guildhall and painted local scenery and livestock auctions. Brill died in 1974. A major retrospective was held in Kingston in 1985, and another in 1999.