Origins & Early Life

John Peter Berger ( BUR-jər; 5 November 1926 – 2 January 2017) was an English art critic, novelist, painter and poet. His novel G. won the 1972 Booker Prize. His essay on art criticism Ways of Seeing, written as an accompaniment to the BBC series of the same name, is hugely culturally influential and continues to be widely read today.

Pivotal Works & Achievements

He lived in France for over fifty years. Berger was born on 5 November 1926 in Stoke Newington, London, the first of two children of Miriam and Stanley Berger. His grandfather was from Trieste, now Italy, and his father, Stanley, raised as a non-religious Jew who adopted Catholicism, had been an infantry officer on the Western Front during the First World War and was awarded the Military Cross and an OBE. Berger was educated at St Edward's School, Oxford. He served in the British Army during the Second World War from 1944 to 1946.

Enduring Legacy & Impact

He enrolled at the Chelsea School of Art and the Central School of Art and Design in London. Berger began his career as a painter and exhibited works at a number of London galleries in the late 1940s. His art has been shown at the Wildenstein, Redfern and Leicester Galleries in London. Berger...

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