Falmer House: from bricks and mortar to oils on canvas

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An oil pastel of Falmer House by celebrated Canadian artist Joseph Plaskett has been given to the University.

The work, which is believed to be the only fine-art painting of campus architecture, was owned by the late Professor Richard Hiscocks, a distinguished authority on European politics who was Professor of International Relations at Sussex between 1964 and 1972.

Hiscocks was also an avid art collector and his family decided to give the work to the University after his death in 1998.

Alister Scott in SPRU, whose wife is the great-niece of Hiscocks, knew the professor during his last years. "He'd had an incredible life", said Alister. "He'd been a colonel in the Royal Marines, he was a military governor in Germany after the war and he was always up for an adventure. He had a great love of art and his collection included etchings of Rembrandt."

It was while employed at the University of Manitoba during the early 1950s that Hiscocks became interested in a group of modern Canadian artists, which included Plaskett.

Plaskett, who was principal of the Winnipeg School of Art in the 1940s before moving to Paris and eventually Suffolk, completed the picture of Falmer House in 1977.

It is probable that Hiscocks commissioned Plaskett to undertake the painting, but this is not certain. If you have any information, contact Simon Lane, who is responsible for cataloguing the University's art collection, on ext. 2128.

The work is likely to be hung in the Mantell Building.

A true reflection: Alister Scott holds Plaskett's painting of Falmer House.