David Bomberg

David Bomberg (1890–1957) was a British painter whose career encompassed some of the most radical shifts in 20th-century art. Born in Birmingham to Polish-Jewish immigrant parents, he grew up in London’s East End and studied at the Slade School of Fine Art. Early in his career, Bomberg produced dynamic, fractured compositions that shared affinities with the Vorticist movement, reflecting the energy of the modern city and the mechanised age, though he was never formally a member of the group. His 1914 painting The Mud Bath remains an iconic example of British avant-garde art.

Bomberg’s experiences as a soldier in the First World War profoundly altered his outlook, and his post-war work turned away from abstraction towards a more expressive figuration. His landscapes and portraits from the 1920s and 1930s demonstrate a forceful use of line and form, as he sought to capture the emotional essence of his subjects. In the 1930s he lived in Spain and Palestine, where he painted with a raw intensity that anticipated later developments in British modernism.

Although underappreciated in his lifetime, Bomberg became a highly influential teacher at the Borough Polytechnic in London during the 1940s and 1950s. His pupils, who included Frank Auerbach and Leon Kossoff, carried forward his emphasis on vitality, structure and the direct expression of human experience. Today, Bomberg is recognised as a pioneering and uncompromising figure whose art bridges the early avant-garde with post-war expressionism.

DAVID BOMBERG (1890-1957)

El Barrio San Francisco, Ronda

DAVID BOMBERG (1890-1957)

The Bridge and River Tajo, Ronda

David Bomberg (1890-1957)

Church of the Holy Sepulchre, Jerusalem

David Bomberg (1890-1957)

East Valley, Cuenca: Afternoon

David Bomberg (1890-1957)

Jerusalem from the Mount of Olives

David Bomberg (1890-1957)

Jerusalem from Mount Olives

DAVID BOMBERG (1890-1957)

View of Cuenca

David Bomberg (1890-1957)

South East Corner, Jerusalem, Afternoon

David Bomberg (1890-1957)

Pool of Hezekiah, Jerusalem

DAVID BOMBERG (1890-1957)

Cathedral Group, Cuenca

David Bomberg (1890-1957)

Siloam and the Mount of Olives

DAVID BOMBERG (1890-1957)

Figure Study (Racehorse)

David Bomberg (1890-1957)

The River Tajo and the Road up to the City, Toledo

DAVID BOMBERG (1890-1957)

The Dancer

David Bomberg (1890-1957)

The River Tajo, Toledo

David Bomberg (1890-1957)

The Slopes of Navao, Picos de Europa

DAVID BOMBERG (1890-1957)

Moorish Ronda, Andalucia

DAVID BOMBERG (1890-1957)

Rock Façade, Petra, Afternoon

David Bomberg (1890-1957)

Evening, The Old City and Cathedral, Ronda

David Bomberg (1890-1957)

Cornflowers and Delphiniums

David Bomberg (1890-1957)

Sunlight and Flowers

David Bomberg (1890-1957)

Monastery of Ay Chrisostomos, Cyprus

DAVID BOMBERG (1890-1957)

Mount St Hilarion, Cyprus

DAVID BOMBERG (1890-1957)

Flowers in a Vase

David Bomberg (1890-1957)

The Moor's Bridge, Ronda

David Bomberg (1890-1957)

Ronda Valley, Spain

David Bomberg (1890-1957)

Quarrying - Jewish Pioneer Labour

David Bomberg (1890-1957)

Family Bereavement

David Bomberg (1890-1957)

In the Cairngorms, late Summer

David Bomberg (1890-1957)

Ronda Valley, looking towards El Castillo and El Barrio, San Francisco

David Bomberg (1890-1957)

Portrait of Mark Gertler

David Bomberg (1890-1957)

Armenian Procession

David Bomberg (1890-1957)

The City, Ronda, Spain

David Bomberg (1890-1957)

Summer flowers

David Bomberg (1890-1957)

Woman in Sunlight, Lilian

DAVID BOMBERG (1890-1957)

Flowers

David Bomberg (1890-1957)

Flowers

DAVID BOMBERG (1890-1957)

Study for 'Vision of Ezekiel'

David Bomberg (1890-1957)

Quarrying - Jewish Pioneer Labour

David Bomberg (1890-1957)

Portrait of Lilian ( recto ), Self-portrait ( verso )

David Bomberg (1890-1957)

Study of a man, recto; Design for Poster for The New Art Salon, verso

David Bomberg (1890-1957)

Portrait of Lilian

David Bomberg (1890-1957)

Spires and Towers, Nôtre Dame

David Bomberg (1890-1957)

Palestine Restoration Fund

David Bomberg (1890-1957)

Goyaesque I

David Bomberg (1890-1957)

Trees, Ronda Valley

David Bomberg (1890-1957)

Portrait of Diana

David Bomberg (1890-1957)

Bomb Store

DAVID BOMBERG (1890-1957)

Sappers at work under Hill 60

David Bomberg (1890-1957)

Self Portrait