Private
Edward Halliday
(1902 - 1984)
Self-portrait in the Studio, c. 1920
Sold
Edward Halliday (1902 - 1984)
Size:
Height – 76.5cm
Width – 63.5cm
The Guides formed when a group of girls stormed into a Scout rally at Crystal Palace in 1909, demanding Robert Baden-Powell start a sister organisation to the Scouts. The junior Guiding section, known originally as the Rosebuds and later the Brownies, was founded in 1914.
Girlguiding quickly grew into a vast and vibrant network of members, that were particularly active during wartime. Between 1914 and 1918, Guides acted as messengers for confidential information for The Marconi Wireless Telegraph. And in 1940 their members raised over £50,000 to help the war effort. They even set up a committee to select and train Leaders for relief work after the war, called the Guide International Service.
Halliday’s portrait of Charlotte was captured shortly after this period and before the Coronation of Elizabeth II in 1953, who was herself a former guide, and opened an international festival dedicated to the movement. The dress of the sitter reflects uniform common to the group in the 1950’s. Charlotte wears a tunic shirt in headquarters blue’, with a trefoil promise pin affixed to her tie. She wears the traditional beret and shoulder knots, whilst the badge on her chest indicates the patrol group that Charlotte belonged to.
Painter in oil and watercolour mainly of portraits. Born in Liverpool, Halliday studied at the City School of Art there, in Paris at the Atelier Colarossi and at the Royal College of Art. He was awarded the Prix de Rome and worked at the British School there. Exhibited at RA, RBA, Paris Salon and RP, of which for a time he was president. His work is in the collections of HM The Queen, Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool, the Athenaeum Club, Wolverhampton Royal Hospital and Bootle Dyeworks. His work was reproduced in The Studio, Illustrated London News and The Times and he was interviewed by Stanley Casson for his book Artists at Work, published in 1933. In 1997, the University of Liverpool held an exhibition which concentrated on Halliday’s efforts to popularise art between the wars. Halliday’s daughter Charlotte is also an artist. He lived in London.
