Roy de Maistre was born in Bowral, Australia in 1894, studying painting at the Royal Art Society of New South Wales and Julian Ashton's Sydney Art School. Having first spent time in Britain in 1923–25, de Maistre settled in London permanently in 1930, encouraged by the openness to modernist art, as well as the more permissive social attitudes to homosexuality. Interested in colour theory and developing cubist-inspired paintings of increasing complexity, de Maistre latterly became best known for his religious artworks, seeking to revitalise the relationship between the contemporary art of his day and the Church.
Painter Roy de Maistre was born LeRoi Levistan de Mestre in Maryvale, Bowral, Australia on 27 March 1894. He attended the Royal Art Society of New South Wales under Antonio Dattilo-Rubbo, who encouraged his interest in Post-Impressionism. He also studied at Julian Ashton's Sydney Art School. Following brief service in the Australian Imperial Force and Australian Army Medical Corps during the First World War, de Maistre met Charles Gordon Moffitt, senior medical officer at Kenmore Hospital in Goulburn, with whom he devised colour-therapy treatment for shell-shocked soldiers, leading de Maistre to develop his theory of colour harmonisation based on analogies between colours of the spectrum and notes of the musical scale. He won the Society of Arts Travelling Scholarship in 1923 and spent the following two years in Britain and France, returning to Australia in 1926.
In 1930 he immigrated to London to further his artistic career, never returning to Australia, partly owing to social attitudes to homosexuality. The relative openness of London provided him with greater opportunities for artistic development and self-expression. Henceforth he called himself Roy de Maistre, believing the modern spelling better suited a modern painter. Soon after arrival, de Maistre organised a joint exhibition with artist and actress, Jean Shepeard in Francis Bacon's studio at 17 Queensberry Mews, in which Francis Bacon showed paintings and rugs. Over the next few years, de Maistre exhibited and worked within London's avant-garde, mentoring the young Bacon (then working as a designer) in the mechanics of painting and the importance of art history. He also encouraged Bacon to work on paintings and develop connections with other artists, dealers and patrons, introducing him to the power of Christian imagery.
In England de Maistre experimented with abstraction, moving away from the conservatism of Australian post-war landscape painting, which, in its rejection of modernism, no longer appealed. He developed along modernist lines, producing cubist-inspired paintings of increasing complexity, while retaining his interest in colour theories. On the Deck (1935, Art Gallery NSW), inspired by a photograph of the Duke of Windsor and Wallis Simpson honeymooning on their yacht, exemplified his developing geometric-cubist style. In 1936 he opened a short-lived school of contemporary painting with the German-Jewish émigré Martin Bloch. Despite professional success, de Maistre's living conditions were unsettled; however, with the support of patroness, Sydney Courtauld, he was able to move into a three-storey building at 13 Eccleston Street, SW1 in 1937, where he lived for the rest of his life. He used the ground floor as his studio and leased the remaining rooms to a range of tenants, including writer Patrick White, who dedicated his first novel to de Maistre and acknowledged his influence on his writing. Holding numerous exhibitions, de Maistre's work was praised in the press and illustrated in several editions of Herbert Read's influential book, Art Now (1933).
Throughout his career de Maistre painted many subjects, encompassing portraits, landscapes, and still lives. However, the themes which engaged him most, and for which he is best known are religious, and these included commissions for churches, as well as his own work. De Maistre sought to revitalise the relationship between contemporary art and the Church, and his religious commissions included Crucifixion for Westminster Cathedral, Resurrection for the Chaplaincy Centre in Oxford and two triptychs for St Aidan's Church in East Acton. In 1954, he accepted his most acclaimed commission to paint Stations of the Cross for Westminster Cathedral, which he executed to dramatic effect over a period of 18 months. This series, displayed in the Great Corridor, showcased the power and intensity of his religious vision. Art critic Alan Roberts noted that de Maistre’s religious pictures had ‘an emotional content, to be found nowhere in the artist’s painting, that links the best of them through Grunewald to Giotto’, adding that in his ‘large Pietà of 1950, with its hard, cruel lines [he] seems to have been at the height of his powers, direct, simple and wholly sincere’ (Roberts 1960, p. 528). In 1954 de Maistre became a member of The London Group and in 1962 he was appointed CBE. In spite of successful solo exhibitions, prestigious commissions and positive press reviews, de Maistre remained impoverished all his life, depending on patrons such as Richard 'Rab' Butler and his wife, Sydney Courtauld, who financed his Eccleston Street studio, and Patrick White, who purchased a large number of works. Herbert Read and John Rothenstein (director of the Tate) also provided substantial professional support. Roy de Maistre died in London, England on 1 March 1968. In the UK public domain his work is held in the Arts Council Collection; Ashmolean Museum; New Walk Museum and Art Gallery, Leicester; and Tate, among others.
Consult items in the Ben Uri archive related to [Roy de Maistre]
Publications related to [Roy de Maistre] in the Ben Uri Library