Brenda Bury (born 1932) is an English professional portrait artist who lives in Canada. She has painted members of the British Royal Family, the aristocracy, and politicians in the British and Canadian governments.

Early life and education

Bury was born in

Brierley Brierley () is a village in the Metropolitan Borough of Barnsley in South Yorkshire, England. The settlement is tightly clustered and green buffered on a modest escarpment close to the border with West Yorkshire, it is almost wholly in popula ...

near

Barnsley Barnsley () is a market town in South Yorkshire, England. It is the main settlement of the Metropolitan Borough of Barnsley and the fourth largest settlement in South Yorkshire. The town's population was 71,422 in 2021, while the wider boroug ...

, South Yorkshire, England in 1932.Newlands, Anne and Parker, Judith. ''A Dictionary of Canadian Artists'', volumes 1–8 by Colin S. MacDonald, and volume 9 (online ed).

National Gallery of Canada The National Gallery of Canada (), located in the capital city of Ottawa, Ontario, is Canada's National museums of Canada, national art museum. The museum's building takes up , with of space used for exhibiting art. It is one of the List of large ...

/ Musée des beaux-arts du Canada When she was seven years old she won a National Savings painting competition and, at 12, won a youth club painting competition. She attended Barnsley High School. Bury later studied Fine Art at the

University of Reading The University of Reading is a public research university in Reading, Berkshire, England. It was founded in 1892 as the University Extension College, Reading, an extension college of Christchurch College, Oxford, and became University College, ...

with J. Anthony Betts, where she received her Bachelor of Fine Arts. As a student, she was given brushes originally owned by

James McNeill Whistler James Abbott McNeill Whistler (; July 10, 1834July 17, 1903) was an American painter in oils and watercolor, and printmaker, active during the American Gilded Age and based primarily in the United Kingdom. He eschewed sentimentality and moral a ...

by a University of Reading Professor.

Career

Bury's work is influenced by historic portraiture painters, such as

Anthony Van Dyck Sir Anthony van Dyck (; ; 22 March 1599 – 9 December 1641) was a Flemish Baroque painting, Flemish Baroque artist who became the leading court painter in England after success in the Spanish Netherlands and Italy. The seventh child of ...

Joshua Reynolds Sir Joshua Reynolds (16 July 1723 – 23 February 1792) was an English painter who specialised in portraits. The art critic John Russell (art critic), John Russell called him one of the major European painters of the 18th century, while Lucy P ...

and John Singer Sargeant. Bury has painted many notable subjects of Great Britain and Canada including

Queen Elizabeth II Elizabeth II (Elizabeth Alexandra Mary; 21 April 19268 September 2022) was Queen of the United Kingdom and other Commonwealth realms from 6 February 1952 until Death and state funeral of Elizabeth II, her death in 2022. ...

Margaret Thatcher Margaret Hilda Thatcher, Baroness Thatcher (; 13 October 19258 April 2013), was a British stateswoman who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1979 to 1990 and Leader of the Conservative Party (UK), Leader of th ...

John Diefenbaker John George Diefenbaker (September 18, 1895 – August 16, 1979) was the 13th prime minister of Canada, serving from 1957 to 1963. He was the only Progressive Conservative Party of Canada, Progressive Conservative party leader between 1930 an ...

Tony Benn Anthony Neil Wedgwood Benn (3 April 1925 – 14 March 2014), known between 1960 and 1963 as Viscount Stansgate, was a British Labour Party (UK), Labour Party politician and political activist who served as a Cabinet of the United Kingdom, Cabine ...

, Quintin Hogg, Agnes Benidickson,

Guy Charbonneau Guy Charbonneau (June 21, 1922 – January 18, 1998) was a Canadian senator who was the longest serving Speaker of the Canadian Senate, serving from 1984 to 1993. During his tenure, amendments to the Standing Orders of the Senate extended ...

Sterling Lyon Sterling Rufus Lyon (January 30, 1927 – December 16, 2010) was a Canadian lawyer, cabinet minister, and the 17th premier of Manitoba from 1977 to 1981. His government introduced several fiscally-conservative measures, and was sometimes seen a ...

Cecil Madden Cecil Charles Madden, MBE (29 November 1902 – 27 May 1987), was an English pioneer of television production. In 1936, he moved from BBC radio to its experimental television service, and was responsible for many programmes until the service was ...

Lord Mountbatten Admiral of the Fleet (Royal Navy), Admiral of the Fleet Louis Francis Albert Victor Nicholas Mountbatten, 1st Earl Mountbatten of Burma (born Prince Louis of Battenberg; 25 June 1900 – 27 August 1979), commonly known as Lord Mountbatten, was ...

Maurice Duplessis Maurice Le Noblet Duplessis, (; April 20, 1890 – September 7, 1959) byname "Le Chef" (, "The Boss"), was a Canadian lawyer and politician who served as the 16th premier of Quebec. A Conservatism in Canada, conservative, Quebec nationalism, ...

, Charles Polanyi,

Jeanne Sauvé Jeanne Mathilde Sauvé (; ; April 26, 1922 – January 26, 1993) was a Canadian politician, journalist and stateswoman who served as the 23rd governor general of Canada from 1984 to 1990 and as the 29th Speaker of the House of Commons (Canada), ...

, Sally Ann Howells and John Napier Turner. Her portrait of Kenneth Peacock Tynan is held in the collection of the

National Portrait Gallery, London The National Portrait Gallery (NPG) is an art gallery in London that houses a collection of portraits of historically important and famous British people. When it opened in 1856, it was arguably the first national public gallery in the world th ...

. Her portrait of Alfred Edward McVie, when he was Mayor of Barnsley in the 1950s, and his wife is held in the collection of the Barnsley Museums. In 1991, Bury held her first public painting performance, completing a painting of Arlene Perly Rae and her eldest daughter Judith.

Personal life

Bury is married to

Nobel Prize The Nobel Prizes ( ; ; ) are awards administered by the Nobel Foundation and granted in accordance with the principle of "for the greatest benefit to humankind". The prizes were first awarded in 1901, marking the fifth anniversary of Alfred N ...

-winning Canadian chemist

John Polanyi John Charles Polanyi (; born 23 January 1929) is a German-born Canadian chemist. He was awarded the 1986 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for his research in chemical kinetics. Polanyi was born into the prominent Hungarian Polányi (Pollacsek) fami ...

. She moved to Canada in the 1980s and they are based in

Toronto Toronto ( , locally pronounced or ) is the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, most populous city in Canada. It is the capital city of the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Ontario. With a p ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Bury, Brenda 1932 births Living people 20th-century English painters 20th-century Canadian painters 20th-century Canadian women artists 21st-century Canadian painters 21st-century English painters 21st-century Canadian women artists Alumni of the University of Reading English portrait painters Canadian portrait painters Canadian women painters 20th-century English women painters 21st-century English women painters People from Barnsley Artists from Yorkshire