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Jack Cadman, Blacksmith

© the artist's estate. Image credit: Girton College, University of Cambridge

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After leaving school aged 16, without any qualifications, Jack Cadman had several false starts before fate directed him towards the flaming hearth and hot metal of the blacksmith's forge. He didn't like labouring and he abandoned a hairdressing course after the first year. Then he was told that a local blacksmith was advertising for an apprentice. It was love at first sight when he arrived at the busy Hampshire forge the following Monday. Jack, born in Yorkshire in 1956, was thrown in at the deep end, working alongside two blacksmiths, four welders, a painter and two packers. He was shown how to make an iron scroll for gates, and told to make 100 more before moving on to something more complicated. It was repetitive work, turning out mass-produced component parts, which someone else welded together.

Royal Society of Portrait Painters People's Portraits collection at Girton College, University of Cambridge

Cambridge

Title

Jack Cadman, Blacksmith

Date

2000

Medium

oil on board

Measurements

H 119 x W 119 cm

Accession number

480

Acquisition method

on loan from the Royal Society of Portrait Painters

Work type

Painting

Inscription description

signature

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Royal Society of Portrait Painters People's Portraits collection at Girton College, University of Cambridge

Huntingdon Road, Cambridge, Cambridgeshire CB3 0JG England

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