 He was a colleague and friend of W. H. Auden in the early 1930s.In 1937 he was an early supporter of the Euston Road School.He encouraged his pupils to paint with direct sincerity in the open air, and the many English painters who learned from him included Kenneth Rowntree, Lawrence Gowing, Andrew Forge, Patrick George, Anthony Hill, Anthony Fry, and Francis Hoyland.