British
Architect, painter, etcher, colour linocut, and monotype artist. Having been awarded the Sloane Medallion by the RIBA in 1900, Power was involved in his own family's architectural practice as well as working with Sir Richard Allington at the Ministry of Works in 1905. Power then worked as a lecturer at University College, London. In 1912 he published a three-volume work, History of English Mediaeval Architecture', illustrated with his own drawings. During The First World War he flew with the RFC. In 1916 he designed and executed a War Memorial for the Great Western Railway at Paddington, London. In the early 1920s he made the first of some forty drypoints and produced a large number of watercolour landscapes and town scapes.

In 1923 he recommenced study at Heatherley's and in 1925 helped Iain Macnab set up the Grosvenor School of Art. Whilst teaching Architecture at the Grosvenor School Power and other, now famous, print makers studied linocutting under Claude Flight. Architecture is the subject of his early linocuts: At Lavenham (c1928), and Westminster Cathedral (c.1928), but with The Escalator and The Merry-go-round (both c1929) the Vorticist interest in speed and movement can be seen. He was the most important of the Grosvenor School artists: The Tube Staircase, Brooklands and Speed Trial (1929-32) the latter of which was of Sir Malcolm Cambell's recordbreaking car Bluebird; are amongst his best works.

Although Claude Flight was undoubtably Britain's main exponent of the linocut between the wars, press reviews of the time indicate that Power and his colleague, Sybil Andrews, attracted far more attention than any of the other Grovsvenor School artists. Power and Andrews formed an informal partnership that led to a series of posters for the London Underground; all of which were signed Andrew Power.

From 1929 Power was involved with group exhibitions instigated by Claude Flight at the Redfern Gallery and the Ward Gallery. 1933 saw the first major joint exhibition of work by Power and Andrews at the Redfern Gallery.

1872 Born 17th december at 14 Redcliffe Street, Chelsea, London. Eldest child of Edward         William Power. Encouraged to draw by his father (there are sketch books in existence dating back to 1886). Also studied music and becamse a proficient pianist and violinist.
1890 Followed the family tradition and becamse articled as an architect, working for some time in         his father's office.
1900 Awarded the Sloane Medallion by the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) for a         design for an art school.
1902 Elected an Associate Member of RIBA
1904 Married Dorothy Mary nunn on 27th August at Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk. They set up         home in Kenilworth Court, Putney, London.
1905 Birth of their first chils, Edward Roper Power on 22nd November. Worked as an architect         at the Ministry of Works under Sir Richard Allington and was involved with the design and         constuction of the General Post Office, King Edward VII Building and also the Post Office         at the corner of Exhibition Road and Imperial College, Kensington, London.
1908 The family moved to Broadfield Road, Catford, London where their second son, Cyril         Arthur Power was born on 11th July.
Was lecturer of Architectural Designand History at the School of Architecture, University         College London (now called the Bartlett School of Atrchitecture) under Professor Simpson         and also at Goldsmith's College, Newcross, London.
1912 Publication of his three-volume work: 'History of English Medieval Architecture' by the         Talbot Pree, mainly illustrated with his own pen and ink drawings.
1914 Birth of his daughter, Joan Margaret Roper Power.
1916 Commissioned by the Royal Flygin Corps and was in charge of repair workshops at Lympe         Aerodrome on the Kent coast.
Designed and executed a War Memorial for the Great Western Railway at Paddington,         London
1918 After demobilisation the family moved to 4 Crown Street, Chequer Square in Bury St         Edmunds where power recommenced his architectural practice.
1920 Designed altreations and additions to Chadrace Hall Agricultural College for Lord Iveagh.         During this period he was producing watercolour landscapes and townscaped as well as the         first of some 40 drypoints.
1921 Birth of his youngest son, Edmund Berry Power on 11th December. Met Sybil Andrews,         with whom he maintained a close and informal working relationship which lasted some 20         years beginning with ajoint exhibition of pastles and watercolours at Crescent House, Angel         hill, Bury St Edmunds.
1923 The family moved to George Street, St Albans, Hertfordshire.
Power and Andrews enrolled at Heatherly's School of ine Art, London
1925 Elected fellow of the Royal Historical Society
Helped Iain McNab and Claude Flight set up the Grosevnor School of Modern Art at 33         Warwick Square, London. Andrews became the School secretary. The principal lecturers         
        were Power on : 'The Form and Structure of Buildings, Historical Ornament and Outline of         Architectural Styles' and Frank Rutter, the art critic, on 'Modern Painters from Cezanne to         Picasso'. It was here that Flight taught the art of linocutting. His classes were attended by         his colleagues, Power and Andrews, and students that came from as far afield as Austrlia         and New Zealand, attracted by the advertisements in 'The Studio'.
1929 Claude Flight and his circle mounted 'The First Exhibition of British Lino-Cuts' in June at the         Redfern Gallery (then at 27 Old Bond Street). A series of Exhitbitions were held annually at         the Redfern Gllaery and the ward Gallery. Further exhibition were arranged by Flight and         travelled to the USA, Australia and even to China (The Shanghai Arts Club). The success of         the first exhibition led ot a commission by Frank Pick, the Deputy Chairman of the         Underground Electric Railways of Lonson (later to become the London Passenger         Transport Board) to design a series of posters. These were produced as chromolithographs         and were based on the theme of sporting venues to be reached via the London         underground system and later by bus or private coach hire. The first of these appeared at         Southfield tube station, the alighting point for the Wimbledon Tennis Championships.         Otheres were for cricket at Lords, St John's Wood and the Oval, Kennington. They also         designe dposters for ice hockey and skating at the Empire Sports Arena, Wembley, racing at         Epsom (where the Derby is held) and an advirtisement to 'Hire a Coach and go to..The         Aldershot Tattoo'
1930 Elected member of the Royal Society of British Artists. Set up a studio with Sybil Andres at         2 Brok Green Studios in hammersmith. London, close to the River Thames which inspired         a number of prints by both artists, most notably 'The Eight' by Power and 'Bringing in the         Boat' by Andrews. Stemming from his interest in music, the studio in Brook Green also         became an informal meeting place for a group of musicians.
1933 First major joint exhibition of the work of Cyril Power and Sybil Andrews at the Redfern         Gallery which consisted of linocuts and monotypoes.
The need for a staedy income obliged Power to take regular employment with the         Architects' Division of the London County Council, under Ralph Wilson, a former student         from his days at Goldsmiths College.
1938 The informal partnership with Sybil Andres came to an end in July when they gave up the         studio at Brook Green and Sybil moved to 'Pipers'; a thatched cottage at Norley Wood         near Lymington on the Hampshire coast which Power had modernised and enlarged the         previous year. Power rejoined the familywho had just moved from Hertfordshire to New         Malden in Surrey.
1939 At the outbreak of war in September, Power was attached to a Heavy Rescue Squad as a         surveyor, based at Wandsworth Town Hall. He continued drawing and painting, tending to         work principally in oils using a palette knife technique. He also spent time lecturing on         painting and linocutting to th local art society at New Malden and at Kingston.
1951 During the last year of his life Power completed from eighty-nine oil paintings, mainly         landscapes of the Helford River and the Falmouth area of Cornwall as well as some floral         studies. He died in London in May 1951, aged seventy-nine.


Lit:
Gordon Samuel/Richard Gault, The Linocuts of Cyril Edward Power (1872-1951), London, Redfern Gallery, 1989.
Collections: AO, BM, Hunterian, V&A.