Leila Faithfull

Leila Elizabeth Josephine Worsley (nee Reynolds 12 April 1896–8 January 1994) was a British artist, who throughout her career worked in a variety of media and who is best known for the artworks she produced during the Second World War, depicting events in Britain.

Leila Faithfull
Born
Leila Elizabeth Josephine Reynolds

12 April 1896
Woolton, England
Died8 January 1994(1994-01-08) (aged 97)
Clifton, Bristol, England
NationalityBritish
Alma mater
Known for
Spouses
  • George Ferdinand Hay Faithfull
    ​
    ​
    (m. 1919; died 1942)​
  • Thomas Cuthbert Worsley
    ​
    ​
    (m. 1943; died 1977)​

Biography

Faithfull was born on 12 April 1896 at Woolton, a suburb of Liverpool where her father, Sir James Reynolds, had business interests.[1][2] She married George Faithfull in 1919, and after his death she married, in 1943, the writer and critic Cuthbert Worsley.[2][3]

Evacuees Growing Cabbages (Art.IWM ART.LD 428) (1940)

Faithfull studied at the Slade School of Fine Art throughout 1923 and 1924, before going to Paris to study at the Académie de la Grande Chaumière. In 1933 she exhibited at the Salon des Artistes Francais in Paris.[4] At the start of World War Two, Faithfull applied to work for the War Artists' Advisory Committee, WAAC. Although not given a full-time commission by WAAC, she was given facilities and permits to work. She used these to produce paintings depicting evacuee children and, later, scenes of American servicemen playing baseball in a London park, and these pieces were purchased by WAAC.[5][6] During the war, Faithfull also worked for a time as a surgical artist at the new plastic surgery unit at the Queen Victoria Hospital in East Grinstead under Sir Archibald McIndoe.[2] At the end of the war, Faithfull produced a triptych depicting the crowds gathered around Buckingham Palace, celebrating on VE-Day.[5][7][8]

After the war, Faithfull built a reputation as a portrait painter and exhibited widely with works shown at the Royal Academy of Arts, the Royal Society of British Artists and the New English Art Club.[9] Both Kenneth Clark and Sir Edward Marsh acquired examples of her work for their private collections.[2] In her later years she begin working in metal, creating figures of dancers and horses. Faithfull died at St. Angela's Convent in Clifton, Bristol where she had lived for several years.[2][10]

References
  1. "Births". Liverpool Echo. 14 April 1896. p. 6. OCLC 31634556. Retrieved 4 September 2021 – via British Newspaper Archive.
  2. David Buckman (2006). Artists in Britain Since 1945 Vol 1, A to L. Art Dictionaries Ltd. ISBN 0-953260-95-X.
  3. Leslie Gilbert Pine, ed. (1956). Burke's Genealogical and Heraldic History of the Peerage, Baronetage and Knightage (101st ed.). Burke's Peerage. OCLC 1153285006.
  4. Benezit Dictionary of Artists Volume 5 Dyck-Gemignani. Editions Grund, Paris. 2006. ISBN 2-7000-3075-3.
  5. Catherine Speck (2014). Beyond the Battlefield: Women Artists of Two World Wars. Reaktion Books. ISBN 978-1-78023-374-1.
  6. Merion Harries; Susie Harries (1983). The War Artists, British Official War Art of the Twentieth Century. Michael Joseph, The Imperial War Museum & the Tate Gallery. ISBN 0-7181-2314-X.
  7. Art from the Second World War. Imperial War Museum. 2007. ISBN 978-1-904897-66-8.
  8. "War artist archive: Mrs L Faithfull". Imperial War Museum. Retrieved 4 September 2021.
  9. Grant M. Waters (1975). Dictionary of British Artists Working 1900–1950. Eastbourne Fine Art.
  10. "Probate record for Leila Elizabeth Josephine Worsley". Probate search. Bristol: Probate Service. 1977. Week 64 D 06. 9451408977B. Archived from the original on 4 September 2021. Retrieved 4 September 2021.
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