Papers of the painter and sculptress Dame Ethel Walker and the painter Grace English

Grace English met Ethel Walker in 1931 and they became friends and regular correspondents. The collection contains letters from Ethel to Grace over a fifteen year period and letters to Grace from: Gabriel White and Philip James of the Arts Council; Siriol Hugh Jones, Vogue magazine; MB Bradshaw, Empire Art Loan Exhibitions Society and others re exhibitions of Ethel Walker. After her death, Grace wrote a monograph on Ethel Walker, but it was never published. This collection includes notes and notebooks on Ethel Walker's life compiled for the monograph, including biographical notes and press cuttings, notes by Ethel Walker on art and philosophy and a private view card and exhibition catalogues for Ethel Walker.

Grace English was born in London in 1891. She studied art in Paris and Karlsruhe, Germany, before attending the Slade School of Art between 1912 and 1914, under Brown and Tonks, and studying etching at South Kensington under Sir Frank Short, in 1921. Whilst in Germany, she met IAR Wylie and illustrated her book on the Black Forest. English exhibited at the Royal Academy and New English Art Club, as well as several London galleries and other societies. She was a member of the SWA and the Women's International Art Club, and received an honourable mention in the painting section of the Sociâetâe des Artistes Franðcais in 1948. She died in 1956. Ethel Walker was born in 1861 in Edinburgh. She studied at Putney Art School, Westminster School of Art, and from 1892 to 1894, at the Slade School of Art. From 1898 until the end of her life she lived and worked at Cheyne Walk in Chelsea. She knew the novelist George Moore and appeared in his memoirs, `Hale and Farewell' (3 volumes, 1911-14). Her work was influenced by Manet, the Impressionists, and W. R. Sickert. In 1900 she was elected the first woman member of the New English Art Club, later becoming an Honourary Life Member and serving on the selecting committee until 1947. She was a member of the London Group and was elected an Associate of the Royal Academy in 1940. Grace English met Ethel Walker in 1931 and after her death, Grace wrote a monograph on her friend that was never published. There is biographical information on Ethel Walker in the exhibition catalogues `Ethel Walker, Frances Hodgkins, and Gwen John: A Memorial Exhibition', with a foreword by John Rothenstein and Philip James (Tate Gallery, 1952), and `Dame Ethel Walker' (Blond Fine Art, 1979).

OPEN

Paper list available.

The collection is available on microfiche and is stored under 'English, Grace'.

Presented by Sir John Rothenstein in 1971. The material was probably given to Rothenstein by Grace English or her friend Hellene Walton during the composition of Rothenstein's `Modern English Painters: Sickert to Smith' (1952).

Letters from Ethel Walker can be found in the papers of J. B. de Graaf (TGA 817), Sir John Rothenstein (TGA 8726), and in the records of the Goupil Gallery (TGA 8314). The Rothenstein papers include a copy of Grace English's monograph on Walker (TGA 8716/2/105). A letter from Grace English to Mary Chamot re 'The Washer Woman of Abba' by Ethel Walker is at TGA 7621/6. Works by Walker are included in the exhibition catalogues of the Artists International Alliance (TGA 7043) and of the London Group (TGA 7713).