Sebastian Openshaw ARA (14 March 1889 - 7 March 1919) was a British painter associated with briefly with Spencer Gore and the Camden Town Group. Openshaw was born in Rangoon before his family relocated to the newly founded Hertfordshire town of Letchworth in 1904. He was educated at Haberdashers' Aske's Boys' School in Elstree, before going on to study painting at the Slade School of Fine Art. It was here that Openshaw was exposed to the work of Slade alumni Harold Gilman and Wyndham Lewis. 1n 1912 Openshaw became a friend of another ex-Slade student, Spencer Gore after meeting him at a private London showing of Post-Impressionist works arranged by critic Roger Fry.
During the summer of that year, the two artists worked together in Letchworth, at a house Gilman had specially commissioned but rarely used. Gore died of pneumonia the following year, prompting Openshaw to take a darker turn in his own work, following the angular art of Expressionist Ernst Ludwig Kirchner and Vorticism. On the outbreak of the First World War, having become disillusioned with art, Openshaw volunteered for the army but was turned down due to weaknesses caused by childhood polio - he was instead assigned to Wellington House as a propaganda artist. After the war Openshaw returned to Letchworth with the intention of opening a local gallery. This dream was never realised however, as he fell victim to the Spanish Flu pandemic in 1919. Several of his works with Gore have been preserved in Letchworth, and a street in the town is named after him.
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