David Haughton

David Haughton (1924–1991) was a British artist associated with the St Ives movement. Many of his paintings, etchings and drawings feature aspects of the Cornish landscape, particularly the area around St Just. Biography Haughton was born in London, spent his early childhood in India and later studied painting at the Slade School. In 1947 he moved to Nancledra, near St Ives, where he became a member of the Penwith Society. He left Cornwall to teach at the Central School of Art and Design in London from 1951 to 1984. After 'discovering' St Just while on a bicycle ride with Kit Barker, a friend and artist, Haughton wrote: The turning point in my life occurred when I first discovered the town of St. Just. What happened to me on that Spring day was inexplicable, but it was an experience that has, I believe, happened to a good many people. The mystics have found it impossible to describe in detail, and they use very generalized terms. But once one has experienced anything of that nature it is impossible to forget it. And unless one is quite unworthy of one’s human dignity one must live by it for the rest of one’s life. I have no idea what caused it, whether it really was the divine and transcendant visitation that it so clearly seemed to be or merely a freak of one’s chemistry. But I do know that it was all important and unutterably beautiful, a trance that went beyond logic but never against it, and that I was at home and everything was mine, loving and tender, the landscape and houses a living thing. (David Haughton from a letter to Norman Levine)