DENIS WIRTH-MILLER (B. 1915)

Denis Wirth-Miller was born in Folkestone in 1915. Aged sixteen, he started to work in Manchester for Tootal Broadhurst Lee, the textile empire and was soon promoted to the position of fabric designer. In the early 1950s he settled in the Essex town of Wivenhoe. He considered the ship-building and fishing town a perfect retreat for his work and began to skillfully capture the austere yet beautiful Essex flatlands on canvas. Francis Bacon often visited Wirth-Miller in Wivenhoe and they are known to have worked together on a number of paintings.