Vincent Evans (artist)

Vincent Evans (1896–1976) was a Welsh artist who had a varied career as a painter, printmaker and art teacher and is known for his depictions of mine workers.

Turning a New Stall in a Coalmine (Art.IWM ART LD 2526)

Evans was born in Ystalyfera in the Swansea Valley in South Wales. Evans was born into a large family and from the age of thirteen worked as a coal miner. After ten years working in local pits, he attended Swansea School of Art until 1920 when he won a scholarship to the Royal College of Art, RCA, where he studied under William Rothenstein and Frank Short until 1922.

After graduating from the RCA, Evans undertook a variety of commissions in Britain and overseas. Between 1924 and 1933, Evans worked as the Art Director at the Wanganui Technical College in New Zealand. This led to Evans representing that country in the art contest at the 1928 Olympics in Amsterdam. During World War II, Evans had a number of works, depicting miners working underground, accepted by the War Artists' Advisory Committee. Before the War, in 1935, Evans had also completed a similar commission for the South Wales branch of the Miners Federation. From 1940, he taught at Slough Grammer School and eventually became the art master there. Evans held that post until 1968 and then, after further time abroad, taught at Slough College until 1968.

Evans was a fine portrait painter, was a member of the Royal Society of Portrait Painters and exhibited several times at the Royal Academy, first showing there while still a student at the RCA. He also exhibited at the New English Art Club, the Leicester Galleries and at the Paris Salon.