Alan sorrell biography

Alan Sorrell is revered as one of the greatest archaeological reconstruction illustrators but his oeuvre reveals a more creative artist.

Alan Sorrell

Born in Tooting Bec in 1904 to a relatively prosperous family, his early life was marked with love and tragedy. The family moved to Southend and Alan was part of a close knit family. His Uncle William was a Royal photographer and claimed that the Sorrell family descended from Norman Sorrell, a conqueror who came over with William I. His family was a creative one. His father (who had wanted to be a painter as a young man) had taken Alan on painting trips with him. Sadly his father died when Alan was six years old.

He was educated first at Southend Municipal School of Art and then at Royal College of Art. The RCA was enjoying something of a golden period under the tutorship of William Rothenstein. Alan who started in 1924 was a contemporary of the 1922 intake which included Eric Ravilious, Edward Bawden, Peggy Angus and Eni