Rye

Rushbury was the son of a clerk from Harborne, then on the outskirts of Birmingham. From the age of 13 he studied with a scholarship at Birmingham School of Art. After that worked as an assistant to Henry Payne, painter and stained glass artist, until 1912. He then moved to London where he shared lodgings with his fellow Birmingham student, Gerald Leslie Brockhurst, and continued his studies at the Slade under Henry Tonks. A watercolourist, draughtsman and printmaker, he was an official war artist in World War I and again in World War II. His first one-man show was held at the Grosvenor Gallery in 1921 and he was a regular exhibitor at the Royal Academy, New English Art Club, Fine Art Society and elsewhere. He was elected a member of the New English Art Club in 1917, the Royal Society of Painters-Etchers in 1921, the Royal Society of Painters in Water Colours in 1922, and the Royal Academy in 1936. In 1949, he was elected Keeper of the Royal Academy and Head of the Royal Academy Schools, a post he held until 1964. He was knighted in 1964. He is represented in the collection of the Tate Gallery, London. He lived at Lewes, Sussex.