Gyrth Russell was a Canadian artist, from Halifax, Nova Scotia. He began his artistic training at the age of 14, attending the Halifax School of Art, then onto the School of Art based in Boston, Massachusetts.
Whilst working as a Draughtsman for the Public Works Department of Canada, in Halifax he witnessed, and sketched the cable ship “MacKay Bennett” returning to Halifax with recovered bodies from the Titanic disaster. In 1911 Russell left Canada to study at Academie Julian, and Academie Calorossi in Paris. At the outbreak of WWI he was commissioned as an official War Artist, for the Canadian sector, under the command of Lord Beaverbrook. During the course of the war he worked with, among others, Augustus John, William Orpen and Frank Brangwyn.
After the war Russell worked for film studios designing railway posters, as well as lecturing and writing. In 1953 he moved to Penarth, South Wales, where he lived until his death in 1970. He was a prolific artist whose works were much sought after in his lifetime, and increasingly since his death. During his lifetime he was a member of the Royal Society of British Artists, the Royal Society of Marine Artists, the Royal Institute of Oil Painters, Watercolour Society of Wales and the South Wales Art Society.
Below is a sample of his works we have sold at Anthemion Auctions