The Robert Sadler (1909-2001) Studio Collection

Robert Sadler was born in Newmarket, the son of a racehorse trainer. He pursued a career in the RAF and was able to combine this with his passion for art. He studied in Cambridge and became a pilot in 1930. In 1942 he was able to attend art school in London and in 1947 he became air attaché to the British Embassy in Copenhagen where he was able to reprise his art studies once more. Repostings offered him further opportunity to attend art colleges, first in Winchester and then in America. He was in America post-war as a representative on the NATO Joint Chiefs of Staff Intelligence Committee in Washington, D.C. and whilst there he became aware of the prevailing American artistic style of the abstract-expressionists, his own style was profoundly influenced.

In 1955 Sadler retired from the RAF and moved back to Newmarket to focus his energies on painting. In 1964 he settled in Aldeburgh and was there for the remainder of his life. During this second career he was prolific, exhibiting widely including with The Royal Institute of Oil Painters, Heffers Gallery, New English Art Club, as well as in numerous Suffolk galleries and exhibitions and further afield including in the United States.

He hung an annual studio exhibition almost every year between 1965 and 2001. His work bridged a number of styles, abstracting landscapes and figures in planes of close tones with sculpted surfaces, his work is likened to the post-war group of British artists including Peter Lanyon, Bryan Winter and Paul Feiler, his work is broadly collected and we are delighted to include a collection of 16 works from the artist’s studio.