Forthcoming

Evelyn Dunbar (1906 - 1960)

December for the Country Life 1938 Gardeners Diary

SKU: 10233
Pen and ink on paper

Size:
Height – 22.5cm
Width – 23cm

DESCRIPTION

Provenance:
The Artist’s Estate
Presentation:
framed
Exhibitied:
Sanctuary, Artist-Gardeners, 1919-39, Garden Museum, London, 25th February ‚5 April, 2020
literature:
Christopher Woodward, Sanctuary: Artist-Gardeners, 1919‚ 1939, published by Liss Llewellyn, 2020


In 1937 Country Life Ltd. ‚Äì a satellite publishing entity of the eponymous magazine ‚Äì commissioned Dunbar to create the 1938 Gardener’s Diary. 

Rich in vignettes and horticultural quotations ranging from the Book of Job to Thomas Hardy, the core artwork in Dunbar’s images of the months, each of which takes human form: female in the gentler months ‚Äì February (idem CAT 65; Evelyn Dunbar: A Life in Painting pages 224/5) with crocus flowers and daffodil shoots in her hat, and April (Lost Works CAT 69; A Life in Painting pages 226/7) jauntily wearing a bird’s-nest hat and carrying attributes of topiary and a garden frame. 

Occasionally these months are autobiographical: April is the month in which Evelyn’s baby by Mahoney would have been born had she not miscarried. July is definitely a male month with its abundance of cabbages and onions, as is November, the season for bonfires and general clearance. Dunbar was not one to waste a good idea or design, and some of these personifications recur as the principal motifs in An English Calendar (Lost Works CAT 71; A Life in Painting pages 229-231), the 6 foot square decoration she painted in 1938. 

Dunbar delighted in personifying abstract conceptions, returning to this device in Seven Days (Lost Works CAT 72; A Life in Painting page 239) and in her projected Faith, Hope and Charity (Lost Works CAT 109). 

We are grateful to Christopher Campbell-Howes for assistance.

Disclaimer:
Liss Llewellyn are continually seeking to improve the quality of the information on their website. We actively undertake to post new and more accurate information on our stable of artists. We openly acknowledge the use of information from other sites including Wikipedia, artbiogs.co.uk and Tate.org and other public domains. We are grateful for the use of this information and we openly invite any comments on how to improve the accuracy of what we have posted.

THE ARTIST

Evelyn Dunbar
Evelyn
Dunbar
1906 - 1960

Evelyn Dunbar studied at Rochester School of Art, Chelsea School
of Art (1927) and the Royal College of Art (1929’33). She painted
murals from 1933 -36 at Brockley School, a collaboration with her
RCA tutor (and lover) Cyril Mahoney (1903’1968) and in 1937
they wrote and illustrated together Gardeners’ Choice. 

In 1938 she set up the Blue Gallery in Rochester, exhibiting her
own work alongside that of Edward Bawden (1903’1989) and
Barnett Freedman (1901’1958) and others. In 1940 she was
appointed an official war artist, becoming the only woman (amongst
36 men) to be given a full time salaried position by the WAAC. 

She held her only solo exhibition at Withersdane, Wye, Kent
in 1953, although the WAAC included numerous pieces in touring
exhibitions ranging from Aberdeen Art Gallery to MOMA, New York. 

A posthumous exhibition was held in 2006 at St Barbe
Museum and Art Gallery, and in 2015 Liss Llewellyn mounted a
major retrospective of her recently rediscovered studio at Pallant
House Gallery. 

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Evelyn Dunbar (1906 - 1960)
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August, c. 1937
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Mural Roundel, 1933-1936
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The Parlement of Foules, 1933-1936
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Study for personification of June for Country Life 1938 Gardener’s Diary, subsequently not used.
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Roses From Our Garden, Nov. 3rd 1926′
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Study for Hospital Train
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Shall We Gather by the River, c. 1925
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Industry and Sloth, c.1932
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Invitation to the Garden, circa 1938
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Felbridge, circa 1926
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RCA Sketch Club Summer Camp, 1930
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Pencil sketch for Portrait of an Airwoman, 1944
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Portrait of an Unidentified Man, c.1925
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Sketch for the dust cover for A Farm Dictionary (Derek Chapman, Evans Brothers, London, 1953
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The Conservatory at the Cedars
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A diagrammatic explanation of trenching or double digging
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An Artist at His Easel (probably Robert Lyon), late 1920s
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Studies and sketches for Putting on Anti-Gas Protective Clothing, 1940
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Studies of Leaves, 1930’s
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The Artist at Her Drawing Board, mid-1920s
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August, 1937
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Studies of vignettes for Country Life, 1938
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Joseph’s Dream, 1938
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The Garden at the Elms, Winter, 1956
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December for the Country Life 1938 Gardeners Diary
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Design for June for the Country Life 1938 Gardeners Diary
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Design for unused title page of Gardener’s Choice, circa 1936
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Study of a figure gardening possibly for Gardener’s Diary
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Study of a young unidentified woman looking into a mirror.
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Woman Selling Watermelon Slices, West Indies
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Joseph in Prison, 1949-50
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Study for July, Gardeners Diary 1938, 1937
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Drawing of Cyclamen neapolitanum and Cyclamen Coüm for Gardeners’ Choice, 1937
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Study II for designs for an embroidered quilt [HMO 689]
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Self-portrait, [HMO 766], 1958
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Pussy Cat, Pussy Cat, Where Have You Been [HMO 333]
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Study I for designs for an embroidered quilt [HMO 689]
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Three sketchbooks
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Studies for Mercatora, an allegorical painting (whereabouts unknown) [HMO 173]
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Dorset, 1947-1948
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Jacobs Dream, 1960
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Evelyn Dunbar (1906 - 1960)
Men Stooking and Girls Learning to Stook. 1940
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Evelyn Dunbar (1906 - 1960)
Study at Sparsholt Farm Institute for A Land Girl and the Bail Bull, 1944 [HMO 40]
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Singling Turnips, 1943
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Seven Days
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April,1937
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Evelyn Dunbar (1906 - 1960)
The Woodcutter and the Bees, spring 1933 [HMO 309]
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Sacking Potatoes, 1948
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Colour study for sub-gallery spandrels at Brockley County School for Boys [HMO 551]
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The Dunbar family in the Garden at The Cedars, Spring (Version 1), c.1928 (HMO 75)
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Portrait of the artists mother, Florence, on a bentwood rocking chair, c.1930 [HMO 797]
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Go Shell, proposed design for Shell petrol. c.1937 [HMO 751]
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Land Workers at Strood, c. 1938
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The Childrens Shop: mice (recto), birds (verso) [HMO 749]
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Sleeping Beauty, 10 minute sketch, c.1928 (HMO 786)
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Milking Practice with Artificial Udders, 1940
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Autumn and the Poet, 1948-1960
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Portrait of the artist Margaret Goodwin
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