Etcher and engraver born in Brockley, London the son of the distinguished sculptor Alfred Drury. Paul Drury was educated at King’s College School, London, Bristol Grammar School and Westminster School. He went on to study art at Goldsmiths’ College where, in 1924, he won the British Institution scholarship in engraving which enabled him to visit Italy.
He was to return to Goldsmiths’ before and after World War II latterly as Principal, from 1966-69 and taught also at the Sir John Cass College in London. By 1924 he had begun to exhibit at the Royal Academy, it was not until 1929 that he came to public attention with his first solo exhibition at the Twenty One Gallery.
He attracted keen critical acclaim arguably for two reasons: the sculptural quality in his portrait heads, which included part of a series of distinguished members of Trinity College, Cambridge, and the influence of Samuel Palmer on his landscapes. Drury, who was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Painter-Etchers and Engravers in 1932 and became a member of its council, continued to exhibit regularly at the Royal Academy mostly etchings and drawings, with an occasional oil painting.
Drury covered the spectrum of printmaking his work embracing line engraving and aquatint, often employing them within the same work. Drury spent the war in the orthopaedic department of Queen Mary’s Hospital, Roehampton, where he helped to make special plasters for difficult breaks. No doubt his working as his father’s assistant early in his career helped him in this task. After the war he became a member of the faculty of engraving of the British School at Rome. This post he retained until 1974, judging the etching entries for the annual Prix de Rome. Drury served as President of the RE from 1970 to 1975.
He showed at all the principal galleries in England and he took part in representative exhibitions of British art in Paris, Vienna, Florence, Stockholm. Buenos Aires, Tokyo, Canada and the United States.
His etchings were acquired by the Print Room of the British Museum, Ashmolean, Oxford, BC, National Portrait Gallery, London, the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Doncaster Museum and the National Gallery of Canada amongst others. He was married to the painter Enid Marie Solomon.
