John Piper was born in 1903.
He studied at the Royal College of Art and the Slade school.
Piper came to painting rather late, and began as a landscapist, painting the picturesque southern coast of England. Attached to the army as a painter during the Second World War, he executed a series of paintings of streets, houses and monuments demolish by bombardments, notably the House of Commons and the City of Bath.
Around 1933, his style changed, and he turned to two dimensional abstract compositions based most frequently upon vertical arrangements of flat colour. In the late thirties he begin working in a more realistic vein, now began that long series of dramatic portraits of castles and grey houses under lowering skies that is most readily associated with his name.
In these architectural themes, Piper found their fullest scope. He painted in warm, rich tones with all the variety and texture that oil paint is capable of.
Piper has become well known for his work as a theatre and ballet designer, in particular his name is associated with the operas Benjamin Britten. He has also undertaken a great deal of graphic work, and has written with sympathy about the visual arts.
John Piper - Talland Church Cornwall 1944
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