Mildred Elsie Eldridge known as Elsi Eldridge, (1 August 1909 – 10 March 1991) was a British artist, mural painter and book illustrator.

Biography

Eldridge was born in

Wimbledon Wimbledon most often refers to: * Wimbledon, London, a district of southwest London * Wimbledon Championships, the oldest tennis tournament in the world and one of the four Grand Slam championships Wimbledon may also refer to: Places London * W ...

in London where her father was

pawnbroker A pawnbroker is an individual that offers secured loans to people, with items of personal property used as Collateral (finance), collateral. A pawnbrokering business is called a pawnshop, and while many items can be pawned, pawnshops typic ...

who later became a jeweller. She attended

Wimbledon School of Art Wimbledon College of Arts, formerly Wimbledon School of Art, is a constituent college of the University of the Arts London, a public art university in London, England. The college specialises in theatre, screen and performance arts and design ...

before studying at the

Royal College of Art The Royal College of Art (RCA) is a public university, public research university in London, United Kingdom, with campuses in South Kensington, Battersea and White City, London, White City. It is the only entirely postgraduate art and design uni ...

where she was taught by

William Rothenstein Sir William Rothenstein (29 January 1872 – 14 February 1945) was an English painter, printmaker, draughtsman, lecturer, and writer on art. Though he covered many subjects – ranging from landscapes in France to representations of Jewish synag ...

and

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 ...

. In her final year at the RCA, Eldridge won the Prix de Rome prize and a scholarship to study at the

British School in Rome The British School at Rome (BSR) is a British interdisciplinary research centre supporting the arts, humanities and architecture established in Rome. Historical and archaeological study are at the core of its activities. History The British Sc ...

. Returning to England in 1936 she worked, along with

Evelyn Dunbar Evelyn Mary Dunbar (18 December 1906 – 12 May 1960) was a British artist, illustrator and teacher. She is notable for recording women's contributions to World War II on the United Kingdom home front, particularly the work of the Women's Land A ...

, Charles Mahoney and others, on a large scale set of

murals A mural is any piece of 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'' is a Spanish ...

based on Aesop's fables at Brockley County Secondary School, now the upper site of

Prendergast School Prendergast School is a girls' secondary school and sixth form located on Hilly Fields, Brockley, in the London Borough of Lewisham. It is part of a multi-academy trust. The school motto is from Chaucer's Prologue to ''The Canterbury Tales:' ...

Brockley Brockley is a district and an wards of the United Kingdom, electoral ward of south London, England, in the London Borough of Lewisham south-east of Charing Cross. It has been named the best area of London to live in. It is an area rich in Vi ...

. In 1937 Eldridge held a very successful solo show at the

Beaux Arts Gallery Beaux Arts Gallery was a gallery at 1 Bruton Place, London, England. It was known as a preeminent center for promoting avant-garde art until its closure in 1965. Founded and operated by portrait sculptor Frederick Lessore in 1923, the gallery wa ...

in London. Later that year she moved to

Oswestry Oswestry ( ; ) is a market town, civil parish and historic railway town in Shropshire, England, close to the England–Wales border, Welsh border. It is at the junction of the A5 road (Great Britain), A5, A483 road, A483 and A495 road, A495 ro ...

where she taught at Oswestry Grammar School and

Moreton Hall School Moreton Hall is a private boarding and day school for girls aged 6 months to 18 and boys aged 6 months to 11, situated in North Shropshire four miles from the market town of Oswestry. Founded in 1913, Moreton Hall celebrated its centenary in 2 ...

in Shropshire. Following a 1939 commission, executed with Muriel Minter, for a stained-glass window at

Llanpumsaint Llanpumsaint (; Welsh "Llan" church + "pum" five + "saint" saint(s)) is a village and community in Carmarthenshire, Wales. In the 2001 UK Census, Llanpumsaint community had a population of 595. It is not to be confused with Pumsaint, a small v ...

parish church, Eldridge moved to Wales. There she married the poet and Anglican priest

R. S. Thomas Ronald Stuart Thomas (29 March 1913 – 25 September 2000), published as R. S. Thomas, was a Welsh poet and Anglican priest noted for nationalism, spirituality and dislike of the anglicisation of Wales. John Betjeman, introducing ''Song at the ...

, whom she had met while teaching in Oswestry. She designed the dust-jacket for his first volume of published poems, ''Stones of the Field'' in 1947 and in due course, works by Eldridge would decorate a number of the churches that Thomas served and preached in. She also worked with the

Recording Britain The Pilgrim Trust is an independent charitable grant-making trust in the United Kingdom. The Trust's aims are to improve the life chances of the most vulnerable and preserve the best of the past for the public to enjoy. The Trust awards approxima ...

and the Recording Wales projects throughout the 1940s to create depictions of war damaged, or otherwise at risk, buildings. Eldridge taught as a lecturer in the extra-mural department of the

University of Wales The University of Wales () is a confederal university based in Cardiff, Wales. Founded by royal charter in 1893 as a federal university with three constituent colleges – Aberystwyth, Bangor and Cardiff – the university was the first universit ...

from 1953 and also returned to mural painting in the mid-1950s. She created a 120 foot long, multi-panel, work ''The Dance of Life'' for the dining room of the nurses home at the

Robert Jones and Agnes Hunt Orthopaedic Hospital The Robert Jones and Agnes Hunt Orthopaedic Hospital (RJAH) in Gobowen, near Oswestry, Shropshire, England is a specialist orthopaedic hospital which provides elective orthopaedic surgery. It is managed by the Robert Jones and Agnes Hunt Orthopa ...

near Oswestry. The mural, which depicts wildlife among Welsh and Italian landscapes and illustrates the negative impact of human activities upon nature, took Eldridge three years to complete, and has been described by the art historian

Peter Lord Peter Duncan Fraser Lord CBE (born 4 November 1953) is a British animator, director, producer and co-founder of the Academy Award-winning Aardman Animations studio, an animation firm best known for its clay-animated films and shorts, particu ...

as "one of the most remarkable large-scale works ever painted in Wales". The mural was put into storage in 1999 but from 2011 has been on public display at Glyndwr University. Eldridge had a number of solo exhibitions during her career, notably at the

National Library of Wales The National Library of Wales (, ) in Aberystwyth is the national legal deposit library of Wales and is one of the Welsh Government sponsored bodies. It is the biggest library in Wales, holding over 6.5 million books and periodicals, and the l ...

Aberystwyth Aberystwyth (; ) is a University town, university and seaside town and a community (Wales), community in Ceredigion, Wales. It is the largest town in Ceredigion and from Aberaeron, the county's other administrative centre. In 2021, the popula ...

during 1959 and at the Powys Fine Art Room in

Welshpool Welshpool ( ) is a market town and Community (Wales), community in Powys, Wales, historically in the Historic counties of Wales, county of Montgomeryshire. The town is from the Wales–England border and low-lying on the River Severn. The c ...

in 1961. She exhibited in group shows with the

Royal Watercolour Society The Royal Watercolour Society is a British institution of painters working in watercolours. The Society is a centre of excellence for water-based media on paper, which allows for a diverse and interesting range of approaches to the medium of wa ...

, with the

Royal Cambrian Academy The Royal Cambrian Academy of Art (RCA) is a centre of excellence for art in Wales. Its main gallery is located in Conwy and it has over a hundred members. image:Plas Mawr.jpg, 240px, Plas Mawr, Conwy Early history During the 19th century there w ...

, the

Royal Scottish Academy The Royal Scottish Academy (RSA) is the country's national academy of art. It promotes contemporary art, contemporary Scottish art. The Academy was founded in 1826 by eleven artists meeting in Edinburgh. Originally named the Scottish Academy ...

and at the

Royal Academy The Royal Academy of Arts (RA) is an art institution based in Burlington House in Piccadilly London, England. Founded in 1768, it has a unique position as an independent, privately funded institution led by eminent artists and architects. Its ...

while

Abbott and Holder Abbott and Holder is an art gallery and dealership in London, England, that specialises in low-price, 19th- and 20th-century English paintings, watercolours, drawings and prints. The gallery has been located at 30 Museum Street, London WC1, ...

hosted a memorial exhibition in 1993. A further retrospective was held during 2013 at Plas Glyn-y-Weddow in

Llanbedrog Llanbedrog is a village and community on the Llŷn peninsula of Gwynedd in Wales. It is situated on the south side of the peninsula on the A499 between Pwllheli and Abersoch. Formerly in the county of Caernarfonshire, it had a population 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 ...

holds a self-portrait of her and her husband in its collection, and the

Victoria and Albert Museum The Victoria and Albert Museum (abbreviated V&A) in London is the world's largest museum of applied arts, decorative arts and design, housing a permanent collection of over 2.8 million objects. It was founded in 1852 and named after Queen ...

in London and the

National Museum of Wales National may refer to: Common uses * Nation or country ** Nationality – a ''national'' is a person who is subject to a nation, regardless of whether the person has full rights as a citizen Places in the United States * National, Maryland, c ...

in Cardiff hold other examples of her work.

Books illustrated

* ''The Three Royal Monkeys'' by

Walter de la Mare Walter John de la Mare (; 25 April 1873 – 22 June 1956) was an English poet, short story writer and novelist. He is probably best remembered for his works for children, for his poem "The Listeners", and for his psychological horror short fi ...

, (

Faber and Faber Faber and Faber Limited, commonly known as Faber & Faber or simply Faber, is an independent publishing house in London. Published authors and poets include T. S. Eliot (an early Faber editor and director), W. H. Auden, C. S. Lewis, Margaret S ...

, 1946) * ''Compassionate Herbs'' by Hilda Leyel, (Faber and Faber, 1946) * ''South Wales and Monmouthshire (Vision of Wales)'' by Tom Richards (

Elek Elek (, ) is a town in Békés County, in the Southern Great Plain region of south-east Hungary. Until the Second World War, the town was home to the largest concentration of Germans in the county, with its population consisting almost entirely ...

, 1949) * ''The Star-born'' by

Henry Williamson Henry William Williamson (1 December 1895 – 13 August 1977) was an English writer who wrote novels concerned with wildlife, English social history, ruralism and the First World War. He was awarded the Hawthornden Prize for literature in 1928 ...

(Faber and Faber, 1948)

Books written and illustrated

* ''Gwenno the Goat'', ( Hart-Davis, 1957) * ''In My Garden'', (Medici Society) * ''The Sea Shore'', (Medici Society, 1986)

References

External links

* https://meeldridge.com/
rs-thomas-me-eldridge-society/
*
Eldridge's works
as sold by

''Celebration of Mildred Elsi Eldridge, artist wife of R. S. Thomas'', BBC Radio Wales recording

Drawings in the Victoria & Albert Museum collection

''Gwydion Thomas: Yesterday's Shining Star? The Restoring of Artist Mildred Elsi Eldrigde (1909-1991)''
at tishfarrell.com
''Life and times of M. E. Eldridge''
at llanpumsaint.org.uk * {{DEFAULTSORT:Eldridge, Mildred 1909 births 1991 deaths 20th-century English painters 20th-century English women artists Alumni of the Royal College of Art Alumni of Wimbledon College of Arts Artists from London English women painters English muralists People from Wimbledon, London British women muralists 20th-century British women painters