Stormy Morning, Mid-Wales, 1969

Fine Art Society, London

London, Tooths, Richard Eurich Recent Paintings, September – October 1970 (illustrated in the exhibition catalogue, no. 5);
Bradford, Cartwright Hall, Richard Eurich: A retrospective exhibition, November 1979 – January 1980. This exhibition toured to Glasgow;
London, Fine Art Society, March – April 1980 and Southampton; Bradford, Retrospective (illustrated in the exhibition catalogue, no. 70);
Woking, The Lightbox, The Ingram Collection: Skyscapes, 10 May – 22 June 2014;
Somerset, Hestercombe Gallery, A Personal Passion, 25 April – 5 July 2015;
Hastings, Jerwood Gallery, Century: 100 Modern British Artists, 23 October 2016 – 8 January 2017;

Born in Bradford, Richard Eurich studied at the Slade School of Art, where one of his reports stated: ‘This student is being influenced by painters who have not been long enough dead to be respectable.’ Despite this, for most of Eurich’s career, he was identified as a somewhat conservative figure, specializing in atmospheric landscapes and beach scenes, often with a touch of menacing fantasy.

We have all seen a house like this, lit with that clarity peculiar to stormy weather. There is a sense of heightened significance at such moments, and in this case the trees obscuring part of the building add to the feeling that there is a story to be told. A prodigious talent, Eurich exhibited portraits early in his career (see Portrait of a Gentleman) but thereafter focused on landscape and coastal scenes, often adopting a vertiginous perspective to accentuate the strangeness of the scene. His career as a war artist produced some particularly impressive work.
Text © James Russell