Becky and Harry Pizan – ARKS, ADAM AND AXARQUIA

The making of the man…

Of all the people I have ever encountered who should have been famous, but were not, my uncle Sidney Pizan, who passed away in December aged 94, is the greatest example I can think of.

Immensely intelligent (declared a genius upon entering grammar school aged only nine); a brain equally at home in the sciences and the arts; a star medical student at London’s University College Medical School; a gifted and highly successful commercial photographer; picture framing entrepreneur; a multi linguist fluent in six languages; plus, a discerning antiquarian bibliophile and all-round connoisseur and collector of the arts with an internationally respected knowledge of Art Nouveau, Sidney was the epitome of a renaissance man.

Moreover, hailing as he did from humble Jewish origins in London’s East End, the son of shopkeepers, Sidney lived a sort of British version of the American Dream, proving, that with a rich combination of nouse and grit, the sky was virtually the limit… I say virtually, because Sidney’s medical ambitions at least were curtailed by a shameful quota on Jewish medical students permitted to become doctors, meaning he had to settle for dentistry (chiropody and ophthalmics being alternative options). That notwithstanding, the only thing that stopped him going on to true fame and fortune was his own lack of hunger for any such things.

At least until his fifties, as regards his profession/s, his pastimes, his social and his family life, Sidney enjoyed a contentedness which perhaps, in a way, dampened any greater ambitions he might have had. Then, following his belated discovery of a partner, and then later wife, he discovered another level of contentment. Ultimately, Sidney was happy as anyone reasonably can expect to be with his lots, firstly as a bachelor and then later with a far quieter, settled existence.

The pictures presented here, show Sidney as a child, mostly together with his younger sister (my late mother, Hannah), and take us up to the time just before he became a professional photographer – a period comprising about 25 years. I hope, and think, that even for strangers looking in on this post, they offer a charming window into a lost world…

A family outing around 1935, perhaps in Epping Forrest. Sidney is the boy with the blonde curls in the front, with his little sister (my mum) next to him, on their mother’s lap (Becky). Their father, Harry is the chap kneeling, second from the left. At this time they lived in the Mile End Road in Stepney, East London. Harry was a grocer and they lived above the shop. Despite their modest means they enjoyed life and wanted for nothing, as I think the glow radiating from this happy assortment of cousins, uncles and aunts clearly reveals…

*A formal studio portrait of Hannah and Sidney, circa 1936*

A school sports photo taken about 1948. At the height of the London Blitz, Harry moved the family to the north-London suburb of Hendon, to avoid the worst of the bombing. Sidney (back row, third from the right) and Hannah (front row, fifth from the left) both excelled at the local grammar school, Hendon County. The headmaster, Maynard Potts declared Sidney the second cleverest student ever to attend the school (the cleverest being Sidney’s classmate, Lionel Blue – later to become a radio celebrity Rabbi on the BBC – standing third from right with spectacles – I think).

*Brother and sister around 1949, shortly before Sidney began his two years national service.*

*Sidney in his first dental practice in Ecclestone Street, Victoria, in central London.*

Captain Pizan (Sidney was an officer in the medical corps – stationed in a schloss in the Black Forest, Sidney spent most of his time learning to ski, drive and taking care of the castle’s substantial wine cellar – he also became fluent in German) attending Hannah’s wedding to my father, Gerald Green in 1953. Gerry, as he was known then, ended up in advertising, and it was he who persuaded Sidney to do commercial photographs for his company, thus beginning a whole new chapter in his life…
…to be continued…

I fancied myself as something of a colourist around the the time I started at Saint Martin’s (1978/79), when this selection of oils on paper dates from. The idea of expressing things like bodily posture and even personality and human attitude through blocks of colour – with just a bit of assistance from drawn lines – was a concept which had interested me since I’d first started looking at pictures by anyone, from Matisse to Mathew Smith.

The paintings here are all of people (including one each of my maternal grandparents) done from life, which even then, was unusual for me – I was always more of a studio artist than a “field artist”. All of my early oil paintings were done on paper (like those presented below) or board. It was only once the generous student grant kicked in (those were the days!), when I’d actually begun at St. Martins, with access to subsidised stretchers and countless yards of cotton duck that I was able to enjoy the use of canvas.

Looking at these pictures now I’m struck by how fresh they look, and despite some pretty crude handling of paint, how closely they portray the subjects.

All in all, they’re not half bad, and the pictures of my much-missed booba and zaida (the bottom two – Becky and Harry Pizan) are surprisingly evocative and poignant- for me at least…