Carel Victor Morlais Weight was born in Paddington, west London on 10 September 1908. His mother, of German and Swedish descent, was a chiropodist, and his father was cashier in a bank. As they both worked, his parents placed Weight with a foster mother, Rose Matkin, also his godmother, who lived in Fulham, then a working class district. He spent his weeks with her and his weekends in his parents' more middle class household, acutely aware of the contrast between deprivation and affluence. From an early age he was sensitive to the unexpected - the shock of burning buildings or a bus mounting the pavement - and these events remained with him to infuse his paintings. Weight studied at the local Hammersmith School of Art (1928-30), where he met Ruskin Spear, who became a lifelong friend. With the encouragement of James Bateman, Weight moved to Goldsmiths' College (1931-3), where the teaching allowed scope for imaginative composition. This was Weight's preferred mode as was shown in important student works, such as Allegro Strepitoso, 1932, which performed a light hearted transformation of some of the art of the past. In 1934 he hired a space for an exhibition in the Cooling Galleries in Bond Street which attracted attention thanks to a favourable mention in the Observer. Teaching at Beckenham School of Art (1932-9) enabled him to support himself. He exhibited at the Royal Academy and the Royal Society of British Artists, and was a committee member of the Artists International Association, which helped artists fleeing Nazi Europe. After being called up to the Royal Engineers, he taught with the Army Education Corps (1944-5) before being sent to Italy as an official War Artist (1945-6). While encountering friends from Goldsmiths' and fellow War Artists like Eric Ravilious and Edward Bawden, Weight had a free hand in choosing his topographical subjects. He also travelled to Vienna and to Greece, and would describe... (http://www.tate.org.uk/art/artists/carel-weight-2128) undefined

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