Cecil King, born at Gunnersbury in London’s Hounslow borough, was educated at Hayleybury, and then was schooled in engineering before studying at the Goldsmiths’ Institute College School of Art, the Westminster School of Art, and in Paris. He developed into one of the leading painters of maritime subjects, mostly as watercolors. King painted for the Sphere and Illustrated London News and his sea paintings are represented in the London Imperial War Museum, and the Paris Musée de Marine. For newspapers and magazines, he also drafted the floods in Paris and the revolution in Portugal, amongst others. During World War I he also painted camouflage for the British naval fleet in Norman Wilkinson’s group. King was vice-president of the Society of Marine Artists and was marine painter to the Royal Thames Yacht Club in Knightsbridge. He is not to be confused with the Irish abstract-minimalist painter (1921-86). The motif for his 1928 entry was the Gravesend Regattas, a traditional rowing event on the Thames.
Great Britain