Saru Gallery
       Japanese Prints & Japanese Paintings

Biography Platt, John (1886 - 1967)

John Platt's full name was John Edgar Platt. He was born in Leek, Staffordshire, He received his education at the Royal College of Art, between 1905-10. Before WWII he became one of the leading exponents of the colour woodcut in UK, and he exhibited at the Royal Academy from 1913. He was renowned for his timely appropriation of Japanese printmaking, which was becoming popular in Europe. In this he was stimulated by Frank Morley Fletcher (1866-1949), who had started making colour woodblock prints "in the Japanese manner" as early as 1897. Platt also designed murals and interior decoration, including work for All Saints Church in Leek, Staffordshire. He was a gifted teacher, taking up his first post at Leek College of Art and then the Royal College of Art in 1910. In the 1920s he was the Principal at Leicester School of Art, where he invited Urushibara to teach in 1929, and then at Blackheath School in London. Platt always enjoyed sketching nautical coastal scenes. As an official war artist, during the Second World War, his paintings faithfully recorded British naval activities for the Ministry of War Transport. After 1949, when his wife died, his health deteriorated and he only worked sporadically.