Robert Sadler British, 1909-2001

Robert Sadler (1909-2001) was a Suffolk-born painter known for his abstract expressionist style shaped by the influences of Jackson Pollock and Nicholas de Stael. Raised in Newmarket as the son of a racehorse trainer, he showed early skill in drawing before studying Mechanical Engineering at Cambridge University, where he joined the University Air Squadron and later the Royal Air Force. While serving in diplomatic and intelligence roles globally, in 1955 he turned to painting professionally, joining the Cambridge Society of Painters and Sculptors. Over the next 45 years, he would lead a thriving career, exhibiting in both the USA and UK, ultimately selling around 2,000 works; a further 1,000 are held in trust. Later living in Aldeburgh, mounting near-annual solo shows during the Aldeburgh festival, his garden studio led to the creation of his intimate landscapes alongside still lifes, figures and horses, with a decisive shift towards his hallmark abstract expressionism that defines his work today.