John Virtue: London

Artist John Virtue spent twenty years in rural isolation as a landscape painter, first in the North of England and then Devon.

In 2002 he responded to a request from the National Gallery in London and decided to move to the capital and paint the city itself. The project took over two years to complete; this film follows the artist at work from Greenwich to Trafalgar Square; and includes witnesses such as Lord Rothschild, Frank Auerbach and Charlie Gillett. The result is a unique and intimate portrait of the painter’s working life.