The Scholar Gypsy

Commissioned in 1954 by the Abbey Trust for the new University of London Union building on Malet Street, Bloomsbury. The subject was taken from Matthew Arnold’s 1853 poem The Scholar Gypsy, which relates the tale of an impoverished Oxford student who leaves his studies to join a band of travellers. The mural was later covered over and is now known only from photographs and through his correspondence.

Date: 1954-6
Tags: Mural
Medium: Oil on canvas
Height (mm): 3048
Width (mm): 4754
Location: University College London Students' Union, Ground Floor, Malet Street, London WC1
Provenance: Commissioned by The Abbey Trust 1954
Literature: Country Life 6 October 1966, illus; Spencer 1974 pp. 172-6; Gough 2024 pp. 278-282, illus. p. 279