Robert Sadler

British 1909 – 2001

Robert Sadler was born in Newmarket, England in 1909, Robert was sent to boarding school at Eastbourne College, and from there he went to Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge, to read Mechanical Engineering. At Cambridge he joined the University Air Squadron, where he learned to fly, and in 1930 joined the Royal Air Force as a Pilot Officer. Sadler and Madeleine Leach (neé Langley) married in 1935, and were together for 66 years until Sadler’s death in 2001.

After the outbreak of the Second World War Robert was posted to France as a staff officer with the Advanced Air Striking Force. In 1942, Robert moved to Directorate of Plans at the Air Ministry in London, which gave him his first real chance to attend Heatherley School of Fine Art and develop the skills he yearned to make more use of. However, in 1943 (shortly after the birth of his son, Robin) he was posted to Turkey, and in 1947, received a Diplomatic posting as Air Attaché to the British Embassy in Copenhagen. Sadler continued to do some painting in Denmark (mainly still lifes and landscapes in oils), and attended art school in Copenhagen, before returning to Suffolk in 1949, in order to live close to his brother Jack who was by now farming at Cheveley, of which Sadler painted landscapes of the area.

Returning to England in 1954 Robert lived at first near Newmarket, and then in Aldeburgh. Robert joined the Cambridge Society of Painters and Sculptors and showed work at their annual exhibitions in 1960 and 1961.

His work was also exhibited at the Industrial Britain Exhibition (1956), The John Moores Liverpool Exhibition (1957/8), The Royal Institute of Painters in Water Colours (1955), The Royal Institute of Oil Painters (1955 and 1957), The Royal Institute Galleries Summer Salon (1955), Artists of Chelsea (1958), Bradford City Art Gallery (1959), Gainsborough House Society (1962), CEMA Belfast (1962), and Saffron Walden Festival (1962), as well as at commercial galleries in the UK and USA. During these years his work was also exhibited at The Royal Institute Gallery (1969), East Anglian Art Today, London (1969), the European Parliament at Strasbourg (1985/86), New English Art Club, Centenary Exhibition (1986).