Harman Sumray, British 1920-2006 - Stretching Figure V (Lazarus), 1963; oil on canvas, signed lower right 'Sumray 63' and signed and dated again on the reverse, 102 x 50.5 cm £1500

‘While I was sculptor in residence at the Central London YMCA, I had a two-hour conversation with the painter and teacher Harman Sumray, who has died aged 85. The most interesting conversation I have ever had, it established, for me, a lifelong belief in the worth and importance of art education.From 1970 to 1972 he wrote To Teach Art - his London University postgraduate thesis - and later gave me a copy. It is the one possession above all, that I would save from a burning building, for within it is that extraordinary vision which was Harman's philosophy of teaching. He invented exercises that allowed students to digest the problems of composition, or life drawing, and crafted so much of contemporary art language.’ Harman Sumray Obituary in the Guardian Newspaper written by Isabel Langtry.