Gideon Summerfield (b. 1995) is a British artist whose practice moves between portraiture, reportage drawing, and landscape, with a strong emphasis on drawing from observation. He studied Illustration at Cardiff School of Art & Design before completing the prestigious postgraduate Drawing Year at the Royal Drawing School in 2017.
Summerfield has described making art as a way of learning about subjects he does not know. This philosophy led to unusually ambitious projects early in his career: he documented refugees, spent years drawing Holocaust survivors and recording their testimonies, and in 2019 traveled to Normandy to draw veterans for the 75th anniversary of D-Day.
An important early commission came in 2018, when Hauser & Wirth invited Summerfield to create portraits of residents of Braemar, Scotland. The resulting works were installed at The Fife Arms, the hotel developed by Hauser & Wirth founders Iwan and Manuela Wirth.
Sotheby's Old Masters drawing specialist Alexander Faber has said of his work: "There is a rawness and honesty to the way Gideon portrays people, that some may find a little overwhelming, but that I believe reveals a maturity and artistic self-confidence far beyond his years."
In 2023, Summerfield was commissioned by King Charles III to document the Coronation procession of May 6, 2023. The resulting paintings entered the Royal Collection and were viewed by the King in 2024.
He was subsequently artist-in-residence at Royal Ascot in 2024, producing drawings and paintings centered around horse racing. In 2025, another work, depicting the Changing of the Colours, was commissioned by the Royal Navy Trophy Centre and unveiled aboard HMS Queen Elizabeth.
Gideon Summerfield lives and works in Bath, UK.
Photos by Imogen Forte
