PETER FREETH RA

Since studying painting and etching (with Anthony Gross) at the Slade and winning the Prix de Rome in engraving in 1960, Peter Freeth has been making monochrome etchings for more than forty years. Even now as a Royal Academician and acknowledged master etcher he is still exploring the possibilities of 'beautiful greys'.

Much of his inspiration comes of course from visual stimuli: memories of great works by the Old Masters and the century of modernism, shells, skulls, sculpture or London's down and outs sleeping in doorways. His landscapes are mostly cityscapes: real, imagined or 'a little tribute to Canaletto'. Many other images are inspired by words: Shakespeare's sonnets, Biblical stories, poetry or popular songs. Like his beloved Italy his etchings are suffused with a classicism that nonetheless appeals to a contemporary aesthetic.

His work is represented in private and public collections including the British Museum, the Victoria and Albert Museum, the Arts Council, the Government Art Collection, the Fitzwilliam Museum, the Ashmolean Museum, the National Gallery Washington, the Harvard University Collection, and the Metropolitain Museum, New York.

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