Biography
Born Peter Richmond in Isleworth, Middlesex in 1922, Peter went on to add Miles to his given name in the 1980’s, thereafter being known as such.
Initially studying at Kingston upon Thames school of art (now known as London South Bank University), Miles Richmond spent the duration of the Second World War working on the land as a conscientious objector, much to his family’s chagrin; his father worked for the Admiralty and his brothers served in the armed forces.
In 1946 Miles moved to London to study at the Borough Polytechnic in Southwark under the tutelage of the famous David Bomberg, a route shared by other young students including Frank Auerbach, Leon Kossoff and Dennis Creffield. In 1947 he became a founder member of the influential Borough Group of artists. Here Miles Richmond was producing paintings that were heavily influenced by the early cubists and inevitably by his tutor, Bomberg.
Richmond and his wife moved Aix en Provence and then onto Ronda in Andalusia, Spain, where Bomberg was running his own art school; Richmond was to teach at this school for twenty years. After Bomberg’s death in 1957, Richmond taught at the International School in Spain. Miles Richmond moved back to England in the 1979, eventually settling in Middlesbrough.
In 1992 Richmond painted one of his most celebrated commissions, a 36 foot wide mural for the newly named London South Bank university to celebrate both it’s centenary and it’s elevation to a university and in homage to David Bomberg
Miles Richmond died in Middlesbrough in 2008 surrounded by his family.