Celebrated British painter Howard Hodgkin has died at the age of 84, the Tate has said.

The artist died on Thursday “peacefully in hospital in London”.

Tate director Nicholas Serota was among those to pay tribute, saying: "Howard Hodgkin was one of the great artists and colourists of his generation."

Born in London in 1932, Hodgkin was evacuated to the US during the second World War.

He studied at the Camberwell School of Art between 1949 and 1950, followed by the Bath Academy of Art, where he later taught for many years.

In 1984, he represented Britain at the Venice Biennale. He was knighted in 1992.

His first retrospective, curated by Mr Serota, took place at the Museum of Modern Art, Oxford, in 1976.

Retrospectives of his work have been held at the Metropolitan Museum in New York, the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art in Edinburgh and the Tate Britain.

PA