Peter de Francia

His paintings and drawing are included in art collections in Britain, and he was the author of two books on Fernand Léger, Leger: The Great Parade (Painters on Painting) (1969) and Fernand Léger (1983), and of several articles on art.

[2] Influenced by nineteenth-century socialist painters such as Gustave Courbet and Honoré Daumier, as well as by socially committed artists of his time like Renato Guttuso and Pablo Picasso, or germans artists such as Max Beckmann or George Grosz, de Francia used subjects that exposed the contradictions in everyday life to try to inspire change.

[1] He grew up in Paris and was educated at Paris's American school, followed by studies in art at the Academy of Brussels (1938–40), and after settling in London, at the Slade School of Fine Art, University of London, in the years 1945-1948.

[4] He worked at the Canadian Government Exhibition Commission in Ottawa (1949–1950) and in the Architects' Department of the American Museum in New York City (1950–1951).

He was Principal of the Department of Fine Art, Goldsmiths' College, University of London (1969–72), and from 1972 to 1986 was Professor of Painting at the RCA.