John Piper was born in Epsom, Surrey, the son of a solicitor. He first joined his father’s legal firm as an articled clerk, but after his father’s death in 1926 he studied at the Richmond School of Art and the Royal College of Art from 1926 – 1928. From 1928 to 1922 he wrote art criticism for the Listener and the Nation. He became a member of the London Group in 1933 and of the Seven & Five Society in 1934. During that year he also met the writer Myfanwy Evans and soon afterwards began assisting her on the avant-garde quarterly Axis, which was launched in 1935. Evans became Piper’s second wife in 1937. At this time he was one of the leading British abstract artists, but by the end of the decade he had become disillusioned with non-representational art and reverted to naturalism. He concentrated on landscape and architectural views in a subjective, emotionally charged style that continued the English Romantic Tradition. Some of his most memorable works in this vein were done during the Second World War when he made pictures, both watercolours and oils, of bomb damaged buildings for the “Recording Britain” scheme and for the War Artists Advisory Committee.
In 1944 He was appointed and Official War Artist. Piper painted a series of views of country houses during the same period, either for himself or on commission. Amongst the commission were a series of paintings of Renishaw Hall, Derbyshire, for Sir Osbert Sitwell, and watercolours of Windsor Castle for the Queen. Piper’s work diversified in the 1950s and he became recognised as one of the most versatile artists of his generation. He worked as a designer of stained glass (notable for Coventry Cathedral) and also designed stage sets among which were several Benjamin Britten operas. In addition Piper made book illustrations and designed pottery and textiles. As a writer he is best known for his book British Romantic Artists (1942). He also compiled several architectural guidebooks to English counties. Piper’s work is extensively represented in the Tate Gallery, London and had exhibitions at the Marlborough Gallery, among others, and a retrospective at the Museum Of Modern Art, Oxford.