Alan Ernest Sorrell (11 February 1904 – 21 December 1974) was an English artist and writer best remembered for his archaeological illustrations, particularly his detailed reconstructions of Roman Britain. He was a Senior Assistant Instructor of Drawing at The Royal College of Art, between 1931–39 and 1946–48. In 1937 he was elected a member of the Royal Watercolour Society.

Biography [link]

Early life [link]

He was born in Tooting, London and moved to Southend, Essex, at the age of two.^[1] The son and second child of Ernest Thomas Sorrell (1861–1910) a jeweller and watchmaker and his wife Edith Jane Sorrell née Doody (1867–1951), Alan Sorrell would often go, with his father on trips away drawing landscapes as a child.^[1] However, the most part of his childhood was spent confined to a bath chair due to a suspected heart condition.^[1] The early death of his father also resulted in Sorrell feeling shy and withdrawn.^[1]

Early career and works [link]

He was trained at the Southend municipal school of art and, after a brief spell as a commercial artist in London, he attended The Royal College of Art between (1924–1927).^[1] Whilst there, he met William Rothenstein whom would act as a mentor for Sorrell and became a close friend.^[1] In 1928, Sorrell won The Prix de Rome in Mural painting and spent the next three years at the British School at Rome.^[1]

Sorrell returned to England in 1931 and became drawing master at The Royal College of Art where he met contemporaries Including Gilbert Spencer.^[1] He began his archaeological reconstruction drawings before the war at Maiden Castle, in collaboration with Mortimer Wheeler, and at Roman Caerwent and Carleon, in collaboration with Cyril Fox and V. E. Nash-Williams of the National Museum of Wales. After the war this archaeological work was to take up more and more of his time with commissions from archaeologists such as Prof. W. F. Grimes (the London Mithraeum), the Illustrated London News and later on a more official basis for the Ministry of Works. Public awareness of his work was increased by his prolific output and his many publications, starting with 'Roman Britain' (1961), as well drawings commissioned for TV series such as 'Who Were the British?' (Anglia TV). Probably this archaeological work has led to more of Alan Sorrell's work being in public collections than that of any other 20th-century artist. As Professor Barry Cunliffe wrote:

To those of us whose interests were kindled and nurtured by the remarkable wave of popular archaeology in the 1950s the name of Alan Sorrell was as well known as those of Glyn Daniel and Sir Mortimer Wheeler. All were experts and scholars in their own fields and all were using their powers of communication to breathe life into the unprepossessing rubble foundations and dreary potsherds that formed the raw material of archaeological research.^[2]

Throughout this post-war period he still found time for his more imaginative work, which was exhibited at the RWS, the RA and other exhibitions. The titles were often evocative, such as 'The Fallen Emperors', 'The Stone Men' & 'The Dark Tower'. A strong characteristic of these paintings is 'a sense of the decay of a noble past, and this and their treatment, in its starkness and drama, links them inevitably with his archaeological drawings' (Mark Sorrell, from Reconstructing the Past).

Personal life and death [link]

He was married twice. The first being to Irene Agnes Mary Oldershaw in 1932 but they were later divorced in 1946. His second marriage was to the watercolour artist Elizabeth Tanner in 1947. He died in 1974 and is buried in Sutton cemetery, Southend-on-sea, along with his wife Elizabeth who died in 1991.

Publications [link]

• Latinum A reader for the first stage of Latin by C.B. Robinson with illustrations by Alan Sorrell, Cambridge at the University Press, 1940
• Roman Britain text by Aileen Fox, drawings by Alan Sorrell, Lutterworth Press, London 1961
• Saxon England text by John Hamilton, drawings by Alan Sorrel, Lutterworth Press, London 1964
• Living History, text and drawings by Alan Sorrell, B T Batsfords Ltd' London 1965
• Norman Britain text by H. R. Loyn, drawings by Alan Sorrell, Lutterworth Press, London 1966
• Prehistoric Britain text by Barbara Green, drawings by Alan Sorrell, Lutterworth Press, London 1968
• The Holy Bible, Revised Standard Version Colour illustrations by Alan Sorrell, William Collins & Sons, London 1968 ISBN 0-7188-1766-4
• Imperial Rome, text and drawings by Alan Sorrell, Lutterworth Press, London 1970 ISBN 0-7188-1367-7
• Stories from Livy by R.M. Ogilvie, original drawings and maps by Alan Sorrell, Oxford University Press, 1970
• Nubia: A Drowning Land text by Margaret S. Drower, paintings by Alan Sorrell, Longmans, London & Harlow, 1970. ISBN 978-0-582-16440-6
• British Castles text and illustrations by Alan Sorrell, B T Batsford Ltd, London 1973 ISBN 0-7134-1119-8
• Roman Towns in Britain text and illustrations by Alan Sorrell, forward by Dr Graham Webster, B T Batsford Ltd, London 1976 ISBN 978-0-7134-3237-4
• Medieval Britain Drawing by Alan Sorrell & Richard Sorrell, Lutterworth Press London 1978
• Reconstructing the Past by Alan Sorrell, edited by Mark Sorrell, Batsfords, 1981, ISBN 0-7134-1588-6

References [link]

1. ^ ^{a b c d e f g h} Sorrell, Mark,Sorrell, Alan Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, accessed 11 December 2011
2. ^ Reconstructing the Past by Alan Sorrell, edited by Mark Sorrell, 1978.