During his time with the GPO, Coldstream worked alongside W. H. Auden, Benjamin Britten and Barnett Freedman but also continued to paint.

[6] Later that year, he co-founded the Euston Road School with Graham Bell, Victor Pasmore and Claude Rogers, having previously been involved in the short-lived objective abstraction movement.

[7] Notable among his paintings of this period is the portrait of Inez Pearn (at that time married to Stephen Spender), which has been called ‘a masterpiece of analytical realism’ and which was said to have needed some forty sittings.

[8] Coldstream's earlier years were characterized by a dedicated engagement with socialist ideals, and by the pursuit of a non-elitist form of art.

[16] Other administrative posts he held were as Vice Chairman of the Arts Council, and as a director of the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, and as a trustee of the National Gallery.

[19] His type of realism had its basis in careful measurement, carried out by the following method: standing before the subject to be painted, a brush is held upright at arm's length.

With one eye closed, the artist can, by sliding a thumb up or down the brush handle, take the measure of an object or interval.

The surfaces of Coldstream's paintings carry many small horizontal and vertical markings, where he recorded these coordinates so that they could be verified against reality.