Helen Lessore
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Helen Lessore | |
---|---|
Born | Helen Brook 31 October 1907 London, England |
Died | 6 May 1994 London, England |
Known for | Painter |
Notable work | Gallerist |
Awards | Order of the British Empire |
Helen Lessore OBE (31 October 1907 – 6 May 1994) was a British gallerist and the director of the Beaux Arts Gallery in London. She was also a painter.
Early life
She was born Helen Brook on 31 October 1907 in London, England.[1] Her father, Abraham Brook (c.1876–1944), had come to London from Lithuania. Her mother, Edith Berliner (1881–1935), was English, from a Frankfurt family of Spanish descent.
Brook studied at the Slade School of Fine Art from 1924 to 1928.[2]
She married the sculptor and gallerist Frederick Lessore in 1934.
Career
Beaux Arts Gallery
In 1931 she began to work as a secretary at the Beaux Arts Gallery, which was founded by the sculptor Frederick Lessore, on Bruton Place in London.[2] Increasingly involved in the running of the gallery and the management of artists, she published the first of many articles on the painter Walter Sickert in 1932.[1] In the years following World War II, the Beaux Arts Gallery became noted for championing figurative painting.[4]
When Frederick died in 1951, Helen took over full directorship of the gallery.
Lessore was also key in championing young, unknown artists. For instance, Francis Bacon had a solo exhibition at the Beaux Art Gallery in 1953.[5] Frank Auerbach and Leon Kossoff held their first solo exhibitions at the gallery in 1956 and 1957, respectively.[4]
Lessore ran the gallery until its closure in 1965.[4] The gallery's final exhibition was a show of her son, the artist John Lessore.[1]
Artist
A full retrospective of Lessore's paintings was exhibited at the Fine Art Society in London in 1987.[1] Her paintings can currently be found in public collections around Great Britain, including the Tate Britain.[6] and the Royal Academy of Arts.[7]
Recognition
Lessore was made an Order of the British Empire (OBE) in 1958 for her services to the arts at the 1958 Birthday Honours.[2]
References
- ^ a b c d e f g Morphet, Richard (8 May 1994). "Obituary: Helen Lessore" The Independent, Retrieved 14 April 2014.
- ^ a b c Bohm-Duchen, Monica. "Artist Biography" Tate, Retrieved 14 April 2014.
- ^ Lessore Family Archive
- ^ a b c d Artworks by or after Helen Lessore, Art UK: see extended Oxford Dictionary of Art and Artists biography, under "artist profile". Retrieved 14 April 2014.
- ^ "Francis Bacon" Marlborough Fine Arts, Retrieved 14 April 2014.
- ^ Helen Lessore. Tate. Retrieved 14 April 2014.
- ^ "Miss Edna Brook" BBC Your Paintings, Retrieved 15 April 2014.
Further reading
- Helen Lessore, Partial Testament, 1987, ISBN 0295967447
External links
- 8 artworks by or after Helen Lessore at the Art UK site