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“Self Portrait with the Artist's Parents” by Veronica Burleigh (British) - Oil on canvas / c 1937 - Brighton Museum (United Kingdom) #womeninart #womanartist #femalertist #art #oilpainting #womensart #VeronicaBurleigh #Burleigh #BrightonMuseum #fineart #Brighton&HoveMuseums #selfportrait #BritishArt
This painting depicts three people, a man and two women, outdoors engaged in artistic endeavors. The man, with short, graying hair, is dressed in a dark blue shirt, trousers, and appears to be using a painting palette. The older woman wears a red sweater and light green hat, stretched out on an olive-green coat painting at an easel. Standing between them holding paint supplies under her arm is a younger woman staring at us behind sunglasses while wearing a chic white dress. It is hard to imagine a more idyllic vision of a family painting holiday. Dad happy with pipe and brush, mum, a picture of contentment in sensible sun hat and daughter adding a touch of Hollywood glamour. The year was 1937 and the young woman in the white dress is Veronica Burleigh with her mother Averil and father Charles. By this time, all three were professional painters and longstanding exhibitors at the Royal Academy. Veronica was born in 1909 in a house purpose built for art. Her parents had designed 7 Wilbury Crescent in Hove with the family business in mind. After studying at the Slade School of Fine Art, 1927–30, under Henry Tonks, Burleigh exhibited at the Royal Academy of Arts (RA), Sussex Women’s Art Club (SWA) and with the Sussex Painters, at Worthing, where the public gallery holds her work. Her famous art includes Little Ballet Dancers, Scene Painters and Calliope. During World War II, she served in the Women’s Auxiliary Air Force. Burleigh’s work was mainly portraits until 1970, when she moved into the country, living at Henfield, Sussex. For 20 years, she commuted yearly to Rhodesia, where she held 23 one-person shows. The family exhibited 96 times at the Royal Academy – Averil (54), Charles (27) and Veronica (15). Charles died in 1956, at 87, outliving Averil who had a fatal heart attack in 1949, at 66. The glamorous Veronica, a devotee of fast cars and gardening, never married, but, after an adventurous life, returned to Sussex where she passed away in 1998 at 89.
April 6, 2025 at 7:34 AM