Edward Wadsworth
1889-1949
He was raised in a northern industrial environment that was to appear with great forcefulness in his Vorticist work. He studied engineering in Munich from 1906 to 1907 and, like many other Vorticists (see Vorticism), Wadsworth's interest in the machine showed itself at an early age. He also studied art at the Knirr School in Munich in his spare time, before attending Bradford School of Art; he then studied through a scholarship at the Slade School of Art (1908–12) in London.
Early paintings like Harrogate Corporation Brickworks (1908; untraced) show a growing interest in industrial subjects. Under the impact of the Post-Impressionists, he turned for a while to portraiture, beach scenes and still-lifes. His work was included in the final month of the Second Post-Impressionist Exhibition held at the Grafton Galleries in 1912, and in the summer of the same year he joined the Omega Workshops, although his alliance with Roger Fry was short-lived.
Wadsworth's new friendship with Wyndham Lewis led to an abrupt departure from Omega in October, when several of his works were included in Frank Rutter's Post-Impressionist and Futurist exhibitions at the Doré Gallery in London. His painting L'Omnibus (c. 1913; untraced; see 1974 exh. cat., no. 12) announced his involvement with motorized themes that clearly derived from Futurism.
