Edith Lawrence (1890-1973)
"Houses on a Hillside"
Linocut, 30.5cm by 25.5cm (unframed)

Provenance: From the artist's estate

See illustration

Born in Surrey in 1890, Edith Lawrence was a painter, designer, printmaker and teacher. She attended the Slade School of Art from 1910-14, where she was a prize-winning student. She went on to spend a period of time in St. Ives and returned to the Slade in 1916, where she studied under the Canadian born artist Percyval Tudor Hart, and also began exhibiting at the Royal Academy and New English Art Club. In 1917, she took up a teaching position at Runston Hill School, and in 1920 she met Claude Flight, the founder of the Grosvenor School of Modern Art. In 1925 she moved into Claude Flight's studio and the two shared an exhibition of textiles and linocuts at the Redfern Gallery in 1926. In 1927 they set up an interior decorating business trying out different methods of linocut, wallpaper, wall hangings and textiles. Throughout their time the two created many linocuts together.

During World War II Claude and Edith lived in London working from their studio off Baker Street. Later fleeing from the Blitz, they moved to a cottage in Donhead St Andrew, Wiltshire. Flight suffered from a stroke in 1947 and had to stop working, Edith nursed him until his death in 1955. She spent much of her later life at Worth Matravers, the surrounding area becoming a source of inspiration for her. In 1973, the year of her death Edith held a solo exhibition at the University of Hull, which was later followed by a memorial exhibition in the same year at the Parkin Gallery dedicated to both Edith and Claude.