David Bomberg
David Bomberg was born in Birmingham on 5th December, 1890. He trained as a lithographer before studying painting in London at the Westminster School of Art (1908-10) and the Slade School of Art (1911-13). In 1913 he travelled to France where he met Modigliani and Picasso. Over the next few years his paintings combine abstract and Vorticist influences.
![David Bomberg, Sappers at Work (1917)](ARTbombergSa.jpg)
In 1917 the Canadian authorities commissioned Bomberg to paint a picture to celebrate an operation in which sappers successfully blew up a salient of the German defences at Saint-Eloi near Arras. His painting, Sappers at Work was rejected by the Canadian committee who criticised Bomberg's Futurism. Bomberg included himself in second version of the painting carrying a heavy beam on his shoulder, to illustrate the burden of working to order.
![David Bomberg (1925)](00DavidBombergD.jpg)
After the First World War Bomberg travelled widely, visiting Palestine (1923-27), Spain (1934-35), Morocco (1930), Greece (1930) and Russia (1933).
David Bomberg died on 19th August 1957.