'Brilliant' reclusive artist to show his work for the first time in decades

A reclusive artist whose work hung alongside masters such as René Magritte and Salvador Dalí has agreed to the first major exhibition of his dreamlike paintings half a century after he withdrew from the art world.

- Dalya Alberge

Henry Orlik, now 77 and living near Marlborough in Wiltshire, was in his 20s when his talent was recognised as exceptional. In the 1970s, he showed at the Royal Academy Summer Exhibition and had a sold-out one-man show at Acoris gallery in London, also taking part in its mixed Surrealist Masters exhibitions with some of the world's greatest names.

One critic described his work as "technically brilliant" and predicted he would not be "unknown for very much longer". But Orlik grew cynical about dealers, dismayed that much of the sale price went to them, "leaving very little for me, the artist".

He refused to allow them to handle his work and retreated from public life, painting his pictures without any interest in promoting them commercially. He lived frugally in a council house with support from his mother.

Now he has been persuaded to allow paintings that have remained hidden to be shown. The exhibition, titled Cosmos of Dreams, opens at the Maas Gallery in London on 9 August.