A tribute to prolific artist Richard Gabriel :

The last of the 43rd

Richard Gabriel, the popular 43rd group artist, the last member of the original nine-member group, died on February 19, in Melbourne, Australia. He was 92 years of age.

Even at the last stage, he had a great enthusiasm for painting. He was never idle. There was always a painting he was working on in his studio.

At his Melbourne home, the walls were covered with innumerable paintings. His output was prolific. Even in the last few days before he was admitted to hospital, he had been working on a new painting.

Gabriel was born in Matara on February 19, 1924, but the family moved to Colombo and he attended St. Peters' College, Bambalapitiya.

In 1943, several leading artists, namely Ivan Pieris, Harry Pieris, George Keyt, George Claessan, Aubrey Collette, Justin Daraniyagala, Rev. Manjusri and Groff Beling met at Lionel Wendt's home, at his invitation. Richard Gabriel, though not well-known, was also invited. At 19 years of age, he was the youngest in the group at the time.

Gabriel always said, thankfully that he got a lot of encouragement from the group's senior members. Harry Pieris and Ivan Pieris gave him lessons in art at the early stages, which helped him to be a good artist.

In the meantime war had broken out in Europe and Japan had joined in.

On Easter Sunday morning in 1942, the Japanese raided Colombo, and caused great damage. The government organised an art exhibition as a public relations exercise to win public support. This exhibition of paintings, called the Ceylon War Effort pictures was held in 1943, at the University College in Colombo.

Richard Gabriel submitted four paintings for this exhibition. All four won prizes.

The groups' inaugural exhibition was held in November 1943, in Colombo. Gabriel was overjoyed when Lionel Wendt bought two of his paintings. Gabriel joined St. Joseph's College as its Art teacher at the invitation of Rev. Fr. Peter A. Pillai. During the war, classes were held at the temporary thatched classrooms built in the gardens of the residence of the Archbishop of Colombo.

Richard Gabriel used to print his own Christmas cards every year, but this Christmas he had to get the help of his son, Angelo and son-in-law Hiran Leitan to get the cards printed after he had designed the card.

Richard Gabriel, above all was a very unassuming person. He never boasted of his talents or fame.

- Percy Mayadunne