He spent two years studying physics, mathematics and engineering at Cambridge University before leaving for London and the Central School of Art in 1937.
[3] The following year, he went to Paris to study Fine Art at the Académie Julian and under the tutelage of the social-realist painter Marcel Gromaire.
[4] While in Paris, he met his first wife Nita Bassetti, an artist's model who had posed for Matisse, and together they had three sons.
These included Fernand Léger, Robert Couturier, Jean Lurçat, Germaine Richier, Óscar Domínguez, Marc Saint-Saëns, Oskar Kokoschka and Antoni Clavé.
The Art Centre also received the support of British artists of the time, such as Francis Bacon, Henry Moore, Julian Trevelyan, Graham Sutherland and Victor Pasmore, who visited and lectured frequently.