Sir John Moores (1896–1993) 

John Bratby painted this portrait of Sir John Moores using thick oil paint, applied with visible brushstrokes. Bratby was one of the leaders of Kitchen Sink Realism, a movement that celebrated the gritty details of everyday life, particularly working-class experience in postwar Britain. In this painting, the materiality of the paint is front and center. The impasto technique – that’s the thick application of paint – gives the surface a tactile quality, almost sculptural. Look closely and you can see how Bratby built up the image layer by layer. The colors are bold and contrasting, not blended seamlessly, giving the portrait a sense of immediacy. The roughness of the paint aligns with the themes of realism and accessibility, which is so central to Bratby's project. It speaks to the labor involved in painting, making the process visible and tangible. In Bratby’s hands, this reflects a democratic ethos, valuing direct expression over polished illusion. The focus on materials, making, and social context challenges the traditional hierarchy between fine art and the everyday.