Gerald Brockhurst

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

Gerald Brockhurst
etching, portraiture, lithography
Notable workAdolescence (1933)

Gerald Leslie Brockhurst (31 October 1890 – 4 May 1978) was a British painter and

etcher
.

During the 1930s and 1940s he was celebrated as a

Duchess of Windsor. Today he is best known for his small etched prints of beautiful, idealized women – many of them modelled by his first and second wives.[1]

Biography

Born in the

Botticelli and Leonardo da Vinci, whose work had an abiding influence on him.[2]
In 1914 he married for the first time to a Frenchwoman, Anaïs Folin, whom he used as the model for most of his early etchings of young womanhood (especially from 1920 till 1934).

From 1915 to 1919 Brockhurst and his wife Anaïs lived in Ireland, where they were friendly with the artist Augustus John and his circle.

Though he tried his hand at etching in 1914, it was not until 1920 that he began his career as an etcher in earnest, eventually achieving success as both a printmaker and society portraitist. Brockhurst held his first important exhibition in 1919, in London, and after it was well received returned to live there.

Royal Academy and was able to command a price of 1,000 guineas for a portrait.[4] In the same year however details of his relationship with his young model Kathleen Woodward, whom he had renamed Dorette, were made public after she gave an interview to the Sunday Express.[4] Brockhurst's marriage had previously come under strain in 1922 when his wife discovered his adultery with her sister, Marguerite, and now broke down acrimoniously, with Brockhurst counter-suing on the grounds of his wife's adultery.[5] In August 1939 Brockhurst and Dorette moved to the United States,[6] and he was eventually divorced from his first wife in 1940.[5]
He married Kathleen in 1947.

In

lithographs at the end of his career (around 1945). In 1951, he was elected into the National Academy of Design as an Associate member.[7]

In 1958, he appeared as a guest challenger on the TV panel show To Tell The Truth, which is viewable on YouTube.[8]

Brockhurst and Dorette settled in Franklin Lakes, New Jersey, and Brockhurst died there on 4 May 1978.[2] Kathleen ‘Dorette’ Woodward, died in 1996.

References

  1. ^ Abe M. Tahir Jr (2005). "Gerald L. Brockhurst (1890-1978), A Retrospective from the William P. Brumfield Memorial Collection". Traditional Fine Arts Organization. Archived from the original on 30 November 2010. Retrieved 29 December 2007.
  2. ^ a b c d e Anne L. Goodchild, 'Brockhurst, Gerald Leslie (1890–1978)', Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004 accessed 13 February 2012
  3. ^ "New York Times". 19 June 1939. {{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
  4. ^ a b "Chequered career of draughtsman". The Times. 22 September 1984. p. 17.
  5. ^ a b "Decree nisi against Mr. Gerald Brockhurst, R.A.". The Times. 12 April 1940. p. 5.
  6. ^ "New York Times". 8 August 1939. English artist arrives: to show etchings here {{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
  7. ^ "National Academicians | National Academy | National Academy Museum". Archived from the original on 14 March 2016. Retrieved 4 March 2016.
  8. ^ Archived at Ghostarchive and the Wayback Machine: To Tell the Truth - Tiger hunting guide; PANEL: Keenan Wynn, Celeste Holm (Mar 25, 1958). YouTube.

External links

Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Gerald_Brockhurst&oldid=1163894187"