Peter Howson
1958– · British contemporary painter and official war artist in Bosnia
Peter Howson (born London, 1958) is a British painter of Scottish background, best known for his war and religious subjects. He was appointed British official war artist during the Bosnian War in 1993, commissioned by the Imperial War Museum, and his work from that period documented atrocities in a deliberately confrontational way. He matters for combining war painting with an intense figurative language.
Born in London to Scottish parents, he grew up in Prestwick, Scotland. After a brief spell in the Royal Highland Fusiliers, he studied at the Glasgow School of Art. His early works portray working-class men, most famously The Heroic Dosser (1987). In Bosnia he painted Plum Grove (1994), and he later returned as war painter during the Kosovo War in 1999 for The Times of London.
From 2000, after overcoming alcoholism and drug addiction, his work took on strong religious themes. His paintings are held by the Tate Modern, the Imperial War Museum and the Metropolitan Museum of Art, among other institutions. His legacy rests mainly on his war painting and his unflinching view of violence.