Victor Askew

Victor Askew was born in Rotherham on 1 February 1909, the thirteenth child of a family of Sheffield engineers. He attended evening classes at Sheffield College of Art from 1923 to 1926. In 1932, on the recommendation of his tutors, he moved to London where he received some tuition from Anthony Betts of the Slade School and achieved some success as a commercial artist. During the war Askew served four years in the army; in his absence his wife submitted his work to the Royal Academy where it was hung in 1944. After the war Askew divided his time between London and Hertfordshire, where he became a neighbour and close friend of Henry and Irina Moore. His first one-person show was held at the Frost and Reed Galleries in 1949 and he had two exhibitions in Canada in 1953 and 1954. As well as working as a painter, Askew and his wife Margaret Mitchell Younge established a successful commercial art business in London, known latterly as Studio A-Y Ltd. Whilst best known as a commercial artist - he provided the advertising drawings for clients such as Dolcis shoes before photography forced him out of business - Askew was also employed as a demonstrator by paint manufacturers, wrote articles on palette knife technique and Oil Painting for Everyone [c.1972] for George Rowney & Co. Victor Askew showed at the Royal Institute of Oil Painters from 1948 to 1973, being elected in 1950. In 1953 he became a Fellow of the Institute of Artists in Landscape. He was awarded the 'Medaille d'Argent' at the 1969 Paris Salon. In 1964 he settled finally in Hertfordshire where he remained until his death on 15 June 1974.

Chris Stephens
February 1998

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