Private
Amy Gladys Donovan
(1898 - 1984)
Self Portrait, 1926
Private Collection
Amy Gladys Donovan (1898 - 1984)
Size:
Height – 34.3cm
Width – 26.7cm
First looked at her online, late at night, entranced first of all by the
buttons. Two on the cuff of the visible sleeve and another eight on her
dress, leading away from her convoluted hands, down from her knees to
the invisible floor of the balcony on which she sits. The buttons are the
same colour as the shawl collar of the garment, and they form a defining
line. So, I called her Girl with Buttons’ until she was with me, so to
speak, and I saw so much more.
Here is Amy Gladys Donovan, defining herself with her signature in
script in the top right-hand corner and her elaborate AD at the bottom
left. “This is ME”, she seems to be saying. “This is Amy.”
We have a three-quarter profile, featuring an interesting, long face
with artful black hair, mouth slightly open. Rather lovely and shy, an
ingénue with a touch of ferocity, innocence and resistance. The colours
are controlled. Scant knowledge of her life indicates that her military
father did not approve of her career in art. Is that the balcony behind,
and has it anything to do with all those buttons?
She sits not centre stage, but left of. Amy Donovan, uncertain, with
anxious, convoluted hands, knew what to do with the space surrounding
herself. (My own definition of design.) She is wonderfully designed,
utterly personal, vulnerable and powerful.
Commentary by Frances Fyfield, a one-time criminal lawyer, who went on to write twenty-four crime novels, some of which
reflect a lifelong passion for undervalued British art. She has won several awards for her writing and is
the presenter of the Radio 4 series Tales from the Stave.
Amy Gladys Donovan was the daughter of an officer in the Indian
army, and spent much of her early life in India. Upon moving
to England in 1911, her artistic ambitions were met with some
resistance from her family, but she eventually enrolled at the Slade
School of Fine Art.
Between 1936 and 1938 she took part in numerous exhibitions,
including at the RBA, the NEAC and the Royal Cambrian
Academy.
Struggling with familial disapproval, however, she moved away
from the experimental Impressionist works that garnered her original
success and spent her later years taking commissions for portraits.
