Isabel Rawsthorne
(1912 - 1992) |
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known as the subject of paintings and sculptures by Picasso, Giacometti and Derain, skeletons of birds, ballet dancers Art Work
| Name: |
Isabel Rawsthorne |
| Gender: |
Female |
| Place of Birth: |
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| Nationality: |
British |
| Birth: |
1912 |
| Death: |
1992 |
| Website: |
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| Past Auctions: |
Click Here |
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Quick Facts
| Known For: |
known as the subject of paintings and sculptures by Picasso, Giacometti and Derain, skeletons of birds, ballet dancers |
| Medium: |
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| Method: |
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| Style: |
Bohemian, Neo-romantic |
| Fine Art Profession(s): |
Painting
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Biography
The stamps filling the pages of Isabel Rawsthorne's passports (Tate Archive) are witness to a colorful life. She trained at Liverpool School of Art and the Royal Academy. In 1934 she went to Paris, living in Montparnasse, and life drawing at the Academie de LaGrange Chaudiere. She modeled for Derain and Giacometti, and Picasso painted her portrait. With her first husband, a foreign correspondent, she traveled to Spain at the outbreak of civil war, and met the journalist Martha Gellhom,
In 1939 Rawsthorne returned to England. Her contribution to the war effort was as a designer of black propaganda - leaflets to undermine the enemy - at Bletchley Park. Rawsthorne described the work in her unpublished memoir: 'They must be eye-catching so that people would be curious and pick them up; also quickly legible... What were humorously called "greeting cards" were leaflets of a highly sexual nature. This was great fun. Fancy being employed by the government to create pornography!'
After the war she returned to painting, working in a semi-abstract style that may well have been influenced by her friend Francis Bacon (who also painted her). She had her first solo exhibition in 1949 at the Hanover Gallery. During the 1950s and 1960sshe designed ballet sets and costumes (both her second and third husbands were composers) for Sadler's Weils and Covent Garden, and painted and drew dancers, including Margot Fonteyn and Rudolf Nureyev. Exhibitions of Rawsthorne's work have recently been held at the Mercer Gallery, Harrogate and the October Gallery, London (1997-8. catalogue by Suzanne Doyle) and the Michael Parkin Gallery, London (1998). |
Samples of Work
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