Sven Berlin

Sven Berlin (14 September 1911 – 14 December 1999) was an English painter, fiction writer and sculptor. He is now best known for his controversial fictionalised autobiography The Dark Monarch, which was withdrawn just weeks after publication in 1962 following legal action, and has now been republished, becoming the theme of an exhibition in the Tate St Ives in autumn 2009.

Berlin was born and grew up in Sydenham, south-east London, in a conventional household for the time, though he was obliged to leave school due to financial pressures at the age of twelve, pursuing a successful career as an adagio dancer until his mid-twenties, where he met his first wife, Helga.

In 1938, he moved to Cornwall to develop his artistic skills, and came under the influence of Dr Frank Turk, an Exeter University educationalist, and attended lectures on philosophy, ancient cultures and the arts. In the Second World War, Berlin registered as a conscientious objector and worked in the market garden established by the art critic Adrian Stokes at Little Park Owles, Carbis Bay, outside St Ives where he met fellow artists Ben Nicholson and Barbara Hepworth. Berlin later renounced his position as a conscientious objector after observing some distressing naval bombing in the English Channel and joined the Army, taking part in the D-Day landings. His experiences led to a breakdown after his return, culminating in a divorce soon afterwards.

Berlin was a member of the blossoming artistic community around St Ives at the time, and met a local girl, Jackie Moran, with whom he moved in. Around this time, Berlin founded the Crypt Group of modern-minded young artists, along with Peter Lanyon, John Wells and Bryan Wynter, and joined the Penwith Society of Arts for a short time, before leaving the group in distaste at its abstract tendencies. There followed a rift between the abstract group of artists on one side and the more romantic faction of artists on the other, which formed the inspiration of The Dark Monarch. The polarisation ruined St Ives for Berlin, however, and he left the colony in 1953 with his second wife, the artist Juanita.

Berlin and Juanita settled in the New Forest in Hampshire and lived as gypsies. Here he produced the bulk of his written work, including I Am Lazarus and The Dark Monarch. On the latter's publication four of the artists and writers portrayed in it began actions for libel. The work was withdrawn after just a few weeks, becoming a rare and sought after book, finally being republished some forty years later.

Berlin was also fascinated by the Romany culture and wildlife of the New Forest, and made an extensive study of fish which was realised in Jonah's Dream: A Meditation on Fishing. His marriage to Juanita also ended in divorce, after she eloped with his groom.

Berlin met his third wife, Julie, and moved to the Isle of Wight in 1970, before finally settling near Wimborne in 1975. Under her guidance, he remained prolific in painting, writing and sculpture right until his death at the age of 88. He left two sons and a daughter.

• Alfred Wallis (Biography) (1949)
• I Am Lazarus (1961)
• The Dark Monarch (1962)
• Jonah's Dream: A Meditation on Fishing (1964)
• Dromengro: Man of the Road (1971)
• Pride of the Peacock – The Evolution of an Artist (1972)
• Amergin (1978)
• Who Wrote Joke Grim? (1993)
• The Coat of Many Colurs (1994
• Virgo in Exile (1996)