Austin Wormleighton, who has died aged 81, was a rare example of a tenacious journalist successfully pursuing a radically alternative career as an art historian. Both sold well, and Austin had completed the text for a second edition of the Birch biography when he died. Austin was the son of Henry, a picture restorer, and Norah. Austin met and married Mary Simons in 1964 but they divorced soon after the birth of their son, Patrick, in 1966. Austin lamented the dearth of landscape painting in modern British art and curated a successful series of travelling exhibitions of Cornish paintings.

Source: The Guardian June 06, 2019 17:15 UTC