Elwin Hawthorne was born in Poplar in 1905. Hawthorne took art courses at the Bethnal Green Men's Institute and Bow and Bromley Evening Institute. The group that emerged from these clubs went on to be known collectively as the East London Group and they worked and exhibited together from 1928 until 1936. Their first prominent show was at the Whitechapel Art Gallery in 1928. Most, like Hawthorne, were from a working class background with little formal art education. However, they caught the attention of press and critics of the day, exhibiting alongside prominent artists such as Phyllis Bray and Walter Sickert. After the 1928 exhibition, Hawthorne worked as Sickert's assistant for three years and his influence can be se...