Robert Austin (artist)
Robert Sargent Austin (23 June 1895 – 18 September 1973) was a British artist known for painting, printmaking, engraving and designing banknotes. He is regarded as one of Britain's leading mid‑20th‑century printmakers.
He studied at Leicester Municipal School of Art (1909–1913) and then the Royal College of Art in London. His studies were interrupted by World War I. He returned in 1919 to study etching with Sir Frank Short and earned a scholarship to study engraving in Italy. In the 1920s, during the etching revival, he made highly detailed copper etchings in a style close to the Pre‑Raphaelite tradition.
During World War II, Austin worked as a war artist, recording the efforts of women in the Royal Air Force and in nursing services for the War Artists’ Advisory Committee. He painted a Nelson portrait for London Transport’s Our Heritage series, which also included portraits of Pitt, Drake, Haig and Churchill.
After the war, he became Professor of Engraving at the Royal College of Art in 1946. He advised the Bank of England on banknote design from 1956 to 1961 and designed the ten shillings and one pound notes issued in the early 1960s.
Austin was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Painter-Etchers and Engravers in 1927 and served as its president from 1962 to 1970. He joined the Royal Watercolour Society in 1934 and was president from 1957 to 1973. He was made an Associate of the Royal Academy in 1939 and a full member in 1949 as an engraver.
He married writer Ada May Harrison; they illustrated several books together. Ada’s sister Rose was married to sculptor James Woodford. The couple had a son, Robert, and two daughters, Rachel and Clare.
In 1936, Austin bought an old Methodist chapel in Burnham Overy Staithe, Norfolk, and converted it into a studio with views of the marshes. He preferred to paint in the early hours of the morning when the light was best.
This page was last edited on 3 February 2026, at 02:24 (CET).