Born Solomon Goldberg in London, 1916, he worked as Sydney Goldberg until around 1950, and then Simon Goldberg for the remainder of his life. Goldberg trained at St Martin’s College of Art, then the Royal College of Art, 1937–40. His teachers included John Nash, Gilbert Spencer and Edward Bawden.

Goldberg went straight from art college to serve in the Royal Artillery, 1940–1944 and the Royal Army Service Corps, 1944–1946. After the war he returned to art and taught at Hull Regional College of Arts and Crafts from 1946-1983. Goldberg was accomplished in many different forms of media, but worked mostly in lithography and oil, producing townscapes and some landscapes.

This vivid impressionistic painting is a view of the back gardens of a street behind Goldberg’s home in Hull. He was known by friends and family to paint continuously, “as though he couldn’t stop”. The three paintings we currently have listed by him are testament to this. They were painted within a short period of each other and when old age made him frail and restricted. Hence why they are all views from his house but from different angles with differing interpretations and use of colour. These particular paintings show how talented he was, to be able to create such expressive paintings even as an elderly man with limited mobility and accessibility to the outside world.

The painting is oil on canvas, unframed but can be hung directly onto the wall as we have done in the photos.

Possibly indistinctly signed- this seems to be a common trait with his paintings.

Measures 55.5cm x 39.5cm.

There is some loss of paint to the top area of the painting, we have used a matte varnish to greatly reduce the risk of further paint loss.