Maurice de Sausmarez (20 October 1915 – 28 October 1969) was an artist, writer and art educator. He played an important role in the establishment of the University of Leeds Department of Fine Art and was Principal of the Byam Shaw School of Drawing and Painting from 1962 to 1969. His influential book Basic Design: The Dynamics of Visual Form (1964) reached a wide international audience and remains in print.
Early life Born Lionel Maurice de Sausmarez on 20 October 1915 in Sydney, Australia, de Sausmarez was the youngest of two children born to British parents Clarence Montgomery 'Monty' de Sausmarez, a marine engineer in the Merchant Service, and Jessie Rose Macdonald (née Bamford), a piano teacher and widow of the explorer G.A. Macdonald. In 1916 the family moved to Grenada, West Indies. In 1918 de Sausmarez's father Monty disappeared while swimming and was presumed to have been killed by a shark. In 1923, Jessie moved back to England with Maurice, his older brother George was already at school there.
Education De Sausmarez attended St James Primary School, Highgate from 1923 to 1926. George was at Christ's Hospital, Horsham, which de Sausmarez attended from 1926 to 1932. While at Christ's Hospital de Sausmarez suffered from rheumatic fever and was confined to bed from April 1927 until spring 1928. In 1932 de Sausmarez became a student at Willesden Polytechnic School of Art, studying under Ernest Heber Thompson. He was awarded Board of Education Certificates in Drawing (1934) and Painting (1936).
From 1936 to 1939 de Sausmarez studied at the Royal College of Art (RCA) as a Royal Exhibitioner in Painting. He was awarded an RCA certificate in etching in 1938. At the RCA he was taught by Malcolm Osborne, Robert Austin and Artists' International Association (AIA) members Barnett Freedman and Percy Horton. His work was exhibited at the Whitechapel Art Gallery and at Willesden Polytechnic School of Art, where he won the Special Prize for Portrait Painting and the Gilbert Spencer Landscape Prize, and at De Olympiade Onder Dictatuur in Amsterdam. De Sausmarez was treasurer of the RCA Theatre Group and organised the RCA Students' Group exhibition at the Imperial Institute Gallery, in 1938.
In 1939 he received the Diploma of Associateship and won the Annual Painting Prize. He was awarded a Continuation Scholarship, but had to relinquish it on the outbreak of war.
Personal life De Sausmarez married Kate Elizabeth Lyons in January 1940. They had a daughter, Phillipa Judith, born in 1941. The couple separated in 1956. While working at Hornsey College of Art de Sausmarez met fellow teacher Jane Boswell. They married in 1963 and had three children (Emma Louise, Simon Benedict and Daniel Maurice). The couple were together until de Sausmarez's death in 1969.
De Sausmarez suffered from ill health throughout his life. Health problems made him resign from his teaching position as an Art Master at King Edward VII Grammar School, Sheffield in 1941 and to be granted a leave of absence from the University of Leeds in 1952. He was hospitalised in April 1957 after suffering a nervous breakdown caused by difficulties in his marriage to Lyons. De Sausmarez returned to work in 1958 with the university making arrangements for his gradual return, including the use of a studio on campus in Beech Grove Terrace. In the summer of 1969, while in France, de Sausmarez was taken ill and returned to England. He died on 28 October at the age of 54, at London Heart Hospital.
Following his death, friends and admirers of de Sausmarez raised funds for a trust. The trust was chaired by painter Carel Weight, and aimed to provide financial support to his family until Daniel, the youngest child, reached school age.
A Thanksgiving service for the life of de Sausmarez was held at St Paul's Church, Covent Garden on 15 December 1969.
World War II De Sausmarez's application as a conscientious objector, on Christian grounds, went before a tribunal in Leeds in 1940. It was declined, and he was placed on a Special Register for Non-Combatant Service. He failed the Armed Services medical exam so continued to work as a teacher, being called on occasionally to work as a civilian instructor for the Army Educational Corps and carrying out fire picket duties at night.
During World War II de Sausmarez was commissioned to draw buildings and scenes from Bedfordshire as part of the Recording Britain scheme, a Pilgrim Trust project led by Sir Kenneth Clark that recorded the changing landscape of wartime Britain. His drawing of Cardington Bridge was published in the first volume of Recording Britain, in 1946.
De Sausmarez played an active role in the Artists' International Association (AIA) during the war, when it supported leftist and antifascist causes. He had shown work in the 1935 group exhibition Artists against Fascism and War alongside artists such as Henry Moore and Paul Nash and also exhibited in wartime AIA exhibitions. He served on AIA committees and contributed to the association's post-war work to promote the importance of art through travelling exhibitions, affordable prints and a scheme creating murals in schools, libraries and hospitals.
Art education and teaching De Sausmarez worked in the field of art education, holding teaching positions and working as an external examiner for universities and colleges. He made significant contributions to debates on art education as a member of boards and advisory committees. His experimental approach to education contributed to changes in how art and design were taught from the mid twentieth century. He campaigned for individual creativity and expression, believing that the arts play a vital role in society. In 1963 his article 'Diploma Daze' de Sausmarez spoke out against the cuts to diploma courses made by the Summerson Committee. As an advocate for practical, vocational education he emphasised its importance in training successful artists and designers. In June 1968 he spoke at the Department of Education and Science Conference for Art Advisors at Dartington Hall. His talk Innovation and Continuity in Art Education was influential and well received.
De Sausmarez's first teaching position was as Art Master at King Edward VII Grammar School, Sheffield, in November 1939. He resigned from full-time teaching in 1941 due to ill health but later took up a part-time teaching position at Willesden Polytechnic School of Art. Returning to his old school made de Sausmarez question the prescriptive, traditional curriculum. He became committed to developing a more open-ended, experimental education for his students, exposing them to dance, theatre and music, as well as the visual arts.
De Sausmarez held teaching positions at Horsham School of Art, Leeds College of Art, the University of Leeds, Hornsey College of Art and the independent London art school Byam Shaw School of Drawing and Painting. De Sausmarez taught part-time at London art schools including Goldsmith's College and Harrow School of Art, lectured at UK institutions including the Royal College of Art and spoke at education conferences.
De Sausmarez championed art education for youth groups and published Look this Way, an introduction to the appreciation of painting written for youth clubs, in 1945.
Leeds College of Art and the University of Leeds In March 1947, de Sausmarez began his association with the city of Leeds, and the surrounding region when he became Head of the School of Drawing and Painting at Leeds College of Art. In 1950 he was appointed as lecturer of fine art at the University of Leeds, his application for the position was supported by fellow artists Percy Horton, Gilbert Spencer and William Coldstream. The Department of Fine Art was newly instituted and de Sausmarez was appointed to establish and develop the curriculum. On the recommendation of the department's founders Bonamy Dobrée and Herbert Read, practical art classes were introduced and taught with art history. De Sausmarez became Head of the new department in 1950, and through his collaboration with Herbert Read, was instrumental in shaping a new prospectus integrating the study of making art with art history. This programme of study was imitated by other institutions. De Sausmarez was promoted to Senior Lecturer and Head of department in 1954.
At Leeds de Sausmarez organised and chaired lecture series for students and the public, giving many of the presentations himself. These included lectures at Graves Art Gallery in Sheffield and Leeds City Art Gallery, a series of twelve public lectures on nineteenth century French painting and a course of ten university extension lectures relating to the Festival of Britain in 1951. He held various positions including Governor of both Leeds College of Art and Harrogate School of Art, Chief Examiner of Leeds University Institute of Education and was a member of the University Senate.
In July 1952 de Sausmarez visited Makerere College in Uganda at the request of the Inter-University Council for Higher Education in the Colonies. The Makerere College School of Art had been set up in 1937 by Slade alumna Margaret Trowell and was affiliated with the University of London. In collaboration with Trowell, de Sausmarez advised on the development of the school and the forming of a new Diploma course.
North Riding Summer School Scarborough De Sausmarez contributed to and organised weekend and summer art courses, notably a residential Summer School in Painting for North Riding County Council. The course ran annually from 1949 to 1953 at Wrea Head College in Scalby, in Scarborough, North Yorkshire, and later at North Riding College. De Sausmarez taught the Summer School alongside colleagues, including fellow RCA graduate, artist and educator Harry Thubron.
Basic Design 'Basic Design', inspired by Bauhaus education principles, played a vital role in revolutionising art school teaching in Britain in the 1950s and 1960s. The key figures in this movement included Victor Pasmore, Tom Hudson, Harry Thubron and de Sausmarez. The two main principles of the movement were a reasoned and objective approach to teaching and the importance of embracing science, technology and the modern world. In 1956 de Sausmarez, Thubron and Hudson contributed to a pivotal Society for Education through Art conference at which de Sausmarez argued that in art theory there existed "a thinly disguised conspiracy against intelligence, resulting from the arbitrary splitting of consciousness and intellect as though they were mutually exclusive instead of inseparable [and that] the denigration of intelligence has serious consequences in art education".
De Sausmarez's approach to 'Basic Design' education focused on fostering a curiosity and inquisitiveness in students. His aim was to create rational, objective teaching that supported emotional and intellectual development; a philosophy he developed with colleague and fellow artist Peter Green while teaching at Hornsey College of Art. De Sausmarez's book on these principles, Basic Design: The Dynamics of Visual Form, was published in 1964 and remains in print.
De Sausmarez's close colleague Harry Thubron developed his Basic Design Course partly at the North Riding Summer Schools they taught together in Scarborough. Thubron's course formed a new model for teaching in art and is still used in Foundation Diplomas.