Brian Hagger (1935 – 2006) was a painter of urban scenes in oils. He was born on 29th January 1935 in Bury St Edmunds educated at West Suffolk County Grammar School. Brian then studied at Ipswich School of Art 1952-1956 and, after National Service, the Royal College of Art 1958-1961, where his teachers included Colin Moss, Philip ‘Pif’ Fortin, Ruskin Spear (1911-1990) and Carel Weight (1908-1997). Many of his paintings show the influence of Spear and Weight.
He became a studio assistant to William Scott and exhibited his work in the open air art shows in Piccadilly and Kings Road Chelsea where he was noticed by the American owner of the new Bramante Gallery in Victoria. He had 4 one man shows at Bramante Galleries, London and many mixed shows between 1968 and 1971. He also showed at the Thackeray Gallery between 1971 and 1976 where he had 5 one man shows. In 1977 he had a one man show with Langton Gallery in Chelsea. He exhibited at the RA during the 1960s 70s and 80s.
From 1978 he exhibited at a number of galleries including the Furneaux Gallery in Wimbledon, Mill Hill Gallery in North London, Selective Eye Gallery in Jersey and Guernsey and the Pheonix Galleries in Lavenham Suffolk and Highgate. He sold over 400 paintings in this period. He was a member of the Norwich Twenty Group. His paintings often depict the faded areas of Chelsea and Fulham, Brighton and Norwich. He used strong draughtsmanship and restrained colour to capture the atmosphere of particular locations. “I have always been interested in Urban landscape and seascape. This has been the subject matter of my work for most of my life. The buildings in question are painted as I see them, although this may sometimes produce architectural changes for the sake of the painting – although almost photographic in concept I try to base them on sound principle of abstract design. An important part of the paintings are the figures which are stylised and simplified to suit the painting in question”
