Mary Adshead
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Mary Adshead (15 February 1904 - 3 September 1995) was an English painter,
muralist A mural is any piece of Graphic arts, graphic artwork that is painted or applied directly to a wall, ceiling or other permanent substrate. Mural techniques include fresco, mosaic, graffiti and marouflage. Word mural in art The word ''mural'' ...
, illustrator and designer.


Biography

Adshead was born in Bloomsbury, London,as the only child of
Stanley Davenport Adshead Stanley Davenport Adshead (1868–1946) was an English architect. Born in Bowdon, Cheshire and raised in Buxton, Derbyshire, Adshead trained in Manchester and London before establishing an independent practice in London in 1898. His early wo ...
, architect, watercolourist, and Professor of Civic Design first at Liverpool, and later at
London University The University of London (UoL; abbreviated as Lond or more rarely Londin in post-nominals) is a federal public research university located in London, England, United Kingdom. The university was established by royal charter in 1836 as a degr ...
, and his wife Annie. Mary attended
Putney High School Putney High School, GDST is an independent girls' day school in Putney, London. Often referred to as simply Putney, the school admits students from the ages 4–18. Founded in 1893 it is a member of the Girls' Day School Trust, a union of 26 ...
from 1916 to 1919 and then spent six months in Paris. Due to her fathers' position within
London University The University of London (UoL; abbreviated as Lond or more rarely Londin in post-nominals) is a federal public research university located in London, England, United Kingdom. The university was established by royal charter in 1836 as a degr ...
, she was able to enrol at the
Slade School of Art The UCL Slade School of Fine Art (informally The Slade) is the art school of University College London (UCL) and is based in London, England. It has been ranked as the UK's top art and design educational institution. The school is organised as ...
in 1921, aged just sixteen. There
Henry Tonks Henry Tonks, Fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons, FRCS (9 April 1862 – 8 January 1937) was a British surgeon and later draughtsman and painter of figure subjects, chiefly interiors, and a Caricature, caricaturist. He became an influentia ...
recognised her ability and arranged her first mural commission, for a boys' club in
Wapping Wapping () is an area in the borough of Tower Hamlets in London, England. It is in East London and part of the East End. Wapping is on the north bank of the River Thames between Tower Bridge to the west, and Shadwell to the east. This posit ...
, working with
Rex Whistler Reginald John "Rex" Whistler (24 June 190518 July 1944) was a British artist, who painted murals and society portraits, and designed theatrical costumes. He was killed in action in Normandy in World War II. Whistler was the brother of poet and ...
. This success led to further commissions. Her next mural, ''A Tropical Fantasy'', was carried out in 1924 and was on a desert island theme for the professor of architecture at Liverpool University, Charles Reilly. This mural still exists and is on display at
Liverpool University The University of Liverpool (abbreviated UOL) is a public research university in Liverpool, England. Founded in 1881 as University College Liverpool, Victoria University, it received Royal Charter by King Edward VII in 1903 attaining the de ...
Art Gallery. A large mural by Adshead, ''The Housing of the People'', was part of the 1924
British Empire Exhibition The British Empire Exhibition was a colonial exhibition held at Wembley Park, London England from 23 April to 1 November 1924 and from 9 May to 31 October 1925. Background In 1920 the Government of the United Kingdom, British Government decide ...
at Wembley in London. Another mural commission was for
Lord Beaverbrook William Maxwell Aitken, 1st Baron Beaverbrook (25 May 1879 – 9 June 1964), was a Canadian-British newspaper publisher and backstage politician who was an influential figure in British media and politics of the first half of the 20th century ...
's Newmarket house. Her mandate was to decorate his dining-room with Newmarket racing scenes and portraits of his friends, such as
Arnold Bennett Enoch Arnold Bennett (27 May 1867 – 27 March 1931) was an English author, best known as a novelist, who wrote prolifically. Between the 1890s and the 1930s he completed 34 novels, seven volumes of short stories, 13 plays (some in collaborati ...
, Lady
Louise Mountbatten Louise Alexandra Marie Irene Mountbatten (born Princess Louise of Battenberg; 13 July 1889 – 7 March 1965) was Queen of Sweden from 29 October 1950 until her death in 1965 as the wife of King Gustaf VI Adolf. Born a princess of the German ...
, and
Winston Churchill Sir Winston Leonard Spencer Churchill (30 November 1874 – 24 January 1965) was a British statesman, military officer, and writer who was Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1940 to 1945 (Winston Churchill in the Second World War, ...
, on their way to the racecourse. The eleven panels, known by the title ''An English Holiday'', was not fully completed as Beaverbrook became concerned that he would be daily faced with the portraits if he ever fell out with any of them. Beaverbrook paid Adshead a two-thirds rejection fee and returned the completed panels which were exhibited in a London department store in
Sloane Square Sloane Square is a small hard-landscaped square on the boundaries of the central London districts of Belgravia and Chelsea, London, Chelsea, located southwest of Charing Cross, in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea. The area forms a ...
in 1930. Later all but three of the panels were destroyed by fire whilst in storage. In 1934 Adshead was commissioned to paint murals for the auditorium, designed by her father to replace one lost to fire, on Victoria Pier at
Colwyn Bay Colwyn Bay () is a town, Community (Wales), community and seaside resort in Conwy County Borough on the north coast of Wales overlooking the Irish Sea. It lies within the historic counties of Wales, historic county boundaries of Denbighshire (h ...
. After the pier's partial collapse, these were thought unrecoverable, but, as of March 2018, several siginificnat parts been recovered, along with parts of another by
Eric Ravilious Eric William Ravilious (22 July 1903 – 2 September 1942) was a British painter, designer, book illustrator and wood-engraver. He grew up in Sussex, and is particularly known for his watercolours of the South Downs, Castle Hedingham and othe ...
, from the pier's tea-rooms. Adshead also painted a mural for the British Pavilion at the
Paris International Exhibition of 1937 The ''Exposition Internationale des Arts et Techniques dans la Vie Moderne'' (International Exposition of Art and Technology in Modern Life) was held from 25 May to 25 November 1937 in Paris, France. Both the Palais de Chaillot, housing the Musà ...
. Adshead's first solo exhibition was held in 1930 at the
Goupil Goupil may refer to: People * Eugène Goupil (1831–1896), French Mexican philanthropist and collector *Guillaume François Charles Goupil de Préfelne (1727–1801), member of the Council of Five Hundred The Council of Five Hundred () ...
Gallery and included the painting ''The Morning after the Flood'' which is now in the
Tate Tate is an institution that houses, in a network of four art galleries, the United Kingdom's national collection of British art, and international modern and contemporary art. It is not a government institution, but its main sponsor is the UK ...
collection. Working with her husband she illustrated two children's books. In 1930 she was elected a member of the
New English Art Club The New English Art Club (NEAC) is a society for contemporary artists that was founded in London, England, in 1886 as an alternative venue to the Royal Academy. The NEAC holds an annual exhibition of paintings and drawings at the Mall Galleries ...
. In April 1941, Adshead submitted a small number of paintings to the
War Artists' Advisory Committee The War Artists' Advisory Committee (WAAC), was a British government agency established within the Ministry of Information at the outbreak of the Second World War in 1939 and headed by Sir Kenneth Clark. Its aim was to compile a comprehensive artis ...
, of which the Committee purchased one. During the war, she also created murals for a public canteen in Birmingham and for a service men's club. She designed the
Universal Postal Union The Universal Postal Union (UPU, ) is a specialized agency of the United Nations (UN) that coordinates postal policies among member nations and facilitates a uniform worldwide postal system. It has 192 member states and is headquartered in Be ...
pictorial issue of stamps for the GPO in 1949, followed by designs for 1951
Festival of Britain The Festival of Britain was a national exhibition and fair that reached millions of visitors throughout the United Kingdom in the summer of 1951. Labour Party cabinet member Herbert Morrison was the prime mover; in 1947 he started with the ...
stamps, and she designed the frame around the portrait of
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. ...
on the 8d, 9d, 10d and 11d
Wilding series The Wildings were a series of definitive postage and revenue stamps featuring the Dorothy Wilding photographic portrait of Queen Elizabeth II that were in use from December 1952 (they were the first UK stamps issued during her reign) until de ...
definitive stamps. In 1950 she decorated the fourth-floor restaurant of
Selfridge's Selfridges, also known as Selfridges & Co., is a chain of upmarket department stores in the United Kingdom that is operated by Selfridges Retail Limited. It was founded by Harry Gordon Selfridge in 1908. The historic Daniel Burnham-designed Sel ...
with jungle scenes. Other commissions included poster designs for London Transport, in both 1927 and 1937, and several murals, now lost, for Bank Underground Station as well as painting sets for the film
Cleopatra Cleopatra VII Thea Philopator (; The name Cleopatra is pronounced , or sometimes in both British and American English, see and respectively. Her name was pronounced in the Greek dialect of Egypt (see Koine Greek phonology). She was ...
. Despite her busy work schedule, she also found time to organise the ''Society of Mural Painters''. In 1929 Adshead married
Stephen Bone Stephen Bone (13 November 1904 – 15 September 1958) was an English painter, writer, broadcaster and noted war artist. Bone achieved early success in book illustration using woodcuts before he turned to painting and art criticism. Early life ...
, the son of the artist Sir Muirhead Bone. The marriage produced two sons and a daughter. After her husband's death in 1958, Adshead travelled widely in both Europe and the United States. In 1966 she produced the volume ''Travelling with a Sketchbook: A guide to carry on a first sketching holiday''. She studied techniques of mosaic decoration in Ravenna and Sicily and had a number of exhibitions of her work both as a solo artist and alongside the works left by Stephen Bone. In 1982 she completed a mosaic mural for Beatson Walk underpass in Rotherhithe which depicted the Fighting Temeraire; a project which required long hours of work inside a cold tunnel during winter. Despite some lameness, she blamed on long periods painting off ladders, Adshead remained an active working artist until the end of her life. Adshead died on 3 September 1995 in London,at the age of 91.


Exhibited works

Adshead's paintings are in many public gallery collections including
The Tate Tate is an institution that houses, in a network of four art galleries, the United Kingdom's national collection of British art, and international modern and contemporary art. It is not a government institution, but its main sponsor is the UK ...
, the
Graves Art Gallery Graves Art Gallery is an art gallery in Sheffield, England. The gallery is located above the Central Library in Sheffield city centre. It houses permanent displays from the city’s historic and contemporary collection of British and European ...
Sheffield, the
Imperial War Museum The Imperial War Museum (IWM), currently branded "Imperial War Museums", is a British national museum. It is headquartered in London, with five branches in England. Founded as the Imperial War Museum in 1917, it was intended to record the civ ...
,
Manchester City Art Gallery Manchester Art Gallery, formerly Manchester City Art Gallery, is a publicly owned art museum on Mosley Street in Manchester city centre, England. The main gallery premises were built for a learned society in 1823 and today its collection occupi ...
, the
London Transport Museum The London Transport Museum (LTM) is a transport museum based in Covent Garden, London. The museum predominantly hosts exhibits relating to the heritage of Transport in London, London's transport, as well as conserving and explaining the histo ...
and The University Art Gallery Liverpool. There are also several surviving mural paintings. Notable works by Adshead included murals, produced with Stephen Bone, for the liner in 1935-36 which were not installed, a triptych for St Mary and All Saints Church in
Plymstock Plymstock is a commuter suburb of Plymouth and former civil parish in the English county of Devon. Geography Situated on the east bank of the River Plym, Plymstock is geographically and historically part of the South Hams. It comprises the ...
near Plymouth in 1957, a decorative pool in the Telephone Exchange Courtyard in Guernsey in 1966 and a mural for a pedestrian subway in
Rotherhithe Rotherhithe ( ) is a district of South London, England, and part of the London Borough of Southwark. It is on a peninsula on the south bank of the Thames, facing Wapping, Shadwell and Limehouse on the north bank, with the Isle of Dogs to the ea ...
in 1983. An exhibition of her work was held at The University of Liverpool Art Gallery (January–April 2005), Graves Art Gallery Sheffield (June–September 2005) and Kingston upon Thames Art Gallery (October–November 2005).


Further reading

* Matthew H. Clough, Ann Compton. ''Earthly delights: Mary Adshead, 1904-1995'' (University of Liverpool Art Gallery, 2004)


References


External links

*
Mary Adshead
(MaryAdshead.co.uk)
Mary Adshead
at London Atelier of Representational Art

at Le Point bed and breakfast * {{DEFAULTSORT:Adshead, Mary 1904 births 1995 deaths 20th-century English painters 20th-century English women artists Alumni of the Slade School of Fine Art Painters from the London Borough of Camden Bone family British stamp designers English war artists English illustrators English women illustrators English muralists English women painters People educated at Putney High School British graphic designers British women graphic designers British women muralists Women stamp designers People from Bloomsbury