Charles Ginner was born in Cannes, France; he worked for a time in an architect's office and then turned to painting which he studied at Ecole des Beaux Arts in Paris. He settled in London in 1909 and quickly became a member of the Camden Town Group, alongside the painters Sickert and Gilman. Ginner's work show his concern to capture the mood of a subject - often the dilapidated streets of Camden and other poorer areas of London - by deliberate study and sound craftsmanship. Early in his career, Ginner preferred to paint interiors and street scenes, but after World War I turned his attention to meticulous study of landscape and individual buildings. The works in the British Council Collection are typical of the close observation and meticulous style he brought to his subject matter.