Albert Herbert is known for his seemingly naïve yet sophisticated figurative paintings of Biblical subjects with a literary and poetic sensibility. Herbert served in the infantry during World War II, and after the War studied at Wimbledon School of Art and then at the Royal College of Art in the late 1940s and early 1950s.

He worked alongside the social-realist "kitchen sink" painters at the RCA, but wanted to make more emotive, symbolic paintings with universal narratives. In the 1960s and '70s and when he became Principal Lecturer at St Martin's School of Art in London, Herbert experimented briefly with abstraction, but found his way back to figurative painting through looking at children's art and making primitive, illustrative, figurative etchings.

In the 1980s he adopted the use of Biblical and theological subjects using them as metaphors and universal symbols. Over the last two decades of his life, free to paint full time after retiring from lecturing, he exhibited regularly with England & Co. gallery in London, including a major retrospective exhibition in 2004.

Submitted by Jane England, England & Co Gallery.

Albert Herbert was born in London in 1925 and grew up in Forest Gate. Childhood friend Bryan Forbes introduced him to art and literature. Herbert worked in the News Chronicle's picture library and was inspired by Len Lye's drawings during WWII.

He studied at St Martin's School of Art, Wimbledon School of Art, and the Royal College of Art, associating with the "Kitchen Sink" painters and meeting Francis Bacon. He married Jacqueline Henly in 1951 and traveled on scholarships to Ibiza, Paris, and Rome. Herbert taught at Leicester College of Art, Birmingham College of Art, and St Martin's School of Art, where he was Principal Lecturer.

His work evolved from figurative to avant-garde, influenced by modernism and abstract expressionism. Later, he revisited Christian symbolism and exhibited regularly, culminating in a 2004 retrospective. He passed away in 2008.