Thursday 21st December - Averil Mary Burleigh (1883-1949)

 Blimey, we're almost there and we've reached the shortest day, which is a relief as Spring is on its way! After yesterday, I felt I owed you a colourful post and although I know some people will get irritated by my inclusion of Averil Mary Burleigh as a Victorian artist, I'm sticking to my guns as I am bloody-minded and anyway, she was born in the 1880s.  She also was an artist in tempera, which gets me all overexcited (I love a bit of tempera revival) and she did book illustrations for Keats and she married an artist and gave birth to one. I think she may well be a full house! Let's crack on with our new friend Averil...

Averil Burleigh (1940s) Charles Burleigh

Today looks like it will end up an embarrassment of riches in terms of illustrations compared to yesterday, but that is no bad thing as I really think it will help to see the pictures we are talking about.  This will certainly be the case when we start talking about why I was so happy to include Averil Burleigh in my line-up of Victorian women, especially since she didn't show one picture until Victoria had turned up her toes.  However, as I have said before, what is Victorian art if not art made by Victorians? Is there such a thing as 'Victorian' when not attached to a person and who are we to decide if something is or is not Victorian?  I think this is essentially a female issue as we tend to think of liberated women as 'modern' and repressed women as 'Victorian' but is that being truthful about either viewpoint? I find it very interesting when 'modern' art critics (those of the 1920s to 40s) refer to an artist as 'Victorian,' or even more controversially 'Pre-Raphaelite,' when art writers now decry using such terms.  We'll come back to this...

Illustration from an edition of John Keats' poems (1911)

So, Averil Mary Dell was born on 21st April 1882 to Henry (1852-1924) and Hannah (1856-1926), in Hassocks in West Sussex. Averil was the third of six children, born between 1877-90. Henry was an Upholsterer (like my Uncle Chub) and the family were obviously doing well enough to employ servants by the 1891 census, when they had moved to Ditchling. They would have been there for the arrival of Amy Sawyer (long before Eric Gill was embarrassing anyone's lifestock). Averil had her training in Brighton Art School, for which the family moved to Brighton, living in St Michael's Place in a tall, white Victorian house. She did very well; the Brighton Gazette reported the school results in 1902 and Averil got a first class for model drawing, drawing from life, drawing from the antique, modelling design and modelling the head from life  I'm guessing it was at art school that she met fellow artist Charles Burleigh.

Charles Burleigh (1940s) Veronica Burleigh

Charles was from Hove (which is very close to Brighton) and in 1901 he was a boarder in a house less than half a mile from the Dell family.  He was a bit older, born in 1868, so I wondered if he was also a teacher at the art school.  The couple married in 1904 and very quickly had their children Duncan  (1905-1953) and Veronica (1909-1999).  There was a very interesting line in one of her obituaries that I thought summed up how different a 'modern' attitude to motherhood was to a Victorian one - 'her career was interrupted by marriage and the rearing of a family. But it was not long before she was once again seriously devoting herself to art.' (Eastbourne Chronicle, 13 January 1950) The language used is astonishing - interrupted, rearing a family - and I can't think that anyone would speak like that now, let alone in 1904, but somehow in 1950, there is a level of bitterness about how women's lives are curtailed by domestic and social obligations. I'm not saying they are wrong to point out how much work she could have got done in the years between her marriage and her first RA acceptance, it's just we don't tend to say that out loud.  Maybe I should move to 1950...

Illustration for 'Ode to a Nightingale'

So, once Veronica and Duncan were reared (like bantam hens, is what comes to mind), the family had moved to 7 Wilbury Crescent in Hove. Houses along that street are absolutely delightful and go for around £1M to give you some idea of how nice. 1911 saw the publication of an edition of John Keats' poems for which Averil did illustrations that are fantastic and full of fairies and magic. Charles had started exhibiting at the RA in 1905 but Averil would have to wait until 1912 for her first piece to appear, The Man Born to be King. You could argue he got to exhibit first because the domestic responsibility did not fall on him, but Averil still reached the RA at 30 to Charles's 37.  There was nothing at the RA in 1913, but 1914 saw two more paintings exhibited there, The Lovers and Motherhood.  It also saw the publication of an edition of Macbeth with Averil's illustrations...

Macbeth was followed in 1915 with Much Ado About Nothing and Adoration at the Royal Academy. The book was greeted with enthusiasm, praising the work as being full of 'cleverness and imagination.' (Stratford Upon Avon Herald, 12 February 1915).  The following year, Averil had two pictures at the RA again, Sir Cauline and the Fair Christabelle and St Genevieve, which the Sussex Daily News called 'very nearly, if not quite, a masterpiece.'  1916 also saw Averil show Japanese Sunshades at the Brighton Autumn Exhibition and exhibit with the Arts and Crafts Exhibition Society, The Dancers, which was for sale for £20. The Dancers also appeared at the 1919 Royal Academy.

Cup and Ball: A Study in Rhythmic Movement (1920)

This is where researching someone who is that little bit later gets a little bit easier as we have newspaper illustrations!  The Sketch was keen to show some pictures, whereas the Royal Academy's official illustrated catalogue only included her once. 1920's RA included Averil's water colour Cup and Ball and Caerulea, hanging in the same gallery as Girl Gang alumni, May Louise Greville Cooksey, followed up in 1921 by The Magic Belt.

The Madonna of the Peach Tree (1923)

1922 saw Dian's Pool at the Royal Academy, described as a 'fantastical conceit' by the West Sussex Gazette. The following year, one of her two works Golden Hours and The Madonna of the Peach Tree actually made it into the RA official illustrated guide.  Sadly, that would be the only time. She missed 1924 at the RA, but followed up in 1925 with The Keeper of Keys.  She also appeared at an exhibition of pictures and drawings at the Galleries of the Fine Art Society, New Bond Street - 'Mrs Burleigh is an artist of uncommon and individual gifts. She has imagination, and the power to express that imagination with a fine sense of style...Her work belongs to a Pre-Raphaelite tradition, with something that is Mrs Burleigh's own.'

Sand Dunes (1926)

Yes, they (the Brighton Herald)  called her Pre-Raphaelite and it will happen again.  1926 saw Sand Dunes and The Hospital, Vire, followed in 1927 by Youth's Distraction and Diana the Huntress. Not much was said in the news and I really want to get to 1928 because that's when the Eastbourne Chronicle reviewed the Society of Sussex Painters with this - 'A PRE-RAPHAELITE To my mind, one of the most interesting exhibitors is Mrs Averil Burleigh, who can only be described as a survival of the Pre-Raphaelite School.' They went on to describe Golden Isle and Distractions of Youth as 'though highly artificial, are very delightful. The colourings, gold and greens, reds and blues, are clear and fine.' Let's circle back to this at the end...

1928 also saw three pictures at the RA and we have images for all of them! We have The Herald of Spring, followed by The Popinjay...

Both were illustrated in the newspapers as contenders for their 'picture of the year'. Finally, we have one of Averil's best known works, The Troubadour, this time in colour...

Hang on! That's the same picture!  Well, it works with either title but I think the picture is The Troubadour, so heaven knows what The Popinjay looks like...

Nijinski in l'Apres-Midi d'un Faune (1928)

1928 also saw the presentation to Belfast Municipal Art Gallery of Sand Dunes (above) and the exhibition of a portrait of the dancer Nijinsky, so the newspapers were full of Averil and her Pre-Raphaelite-ish art. The Eastbourne Gazette sang her praises - 'Mrs Averil Burleigh, the brilliant artist who lives at Brighton, shows some of her decorative paintings which are touched with the medieval...Averil Burleigh, who is the mother of a tall son and an artistic daughter - the latter often acts as model to her mother - is the wife of C H H Burleigh, RBI, an artist of real renown, and their happy life is an example of how two people possessing the artistic temperament may avoid "getting on each other's nerves."' Interesting how quickly Averil got reduced back down to a mother and wife in a year where she had received so much praise and had so much success.

The Jugglers: A Study in Modernity

In 1929, Averil exhibited The Jugglers at the Society of Women Artist and it was illustrated in the Sketch in 1932.  She also had Victory at the Royal Academy, where her daughter Veronica was exhibiting her first Academy work. I absolutely love this image by Veronica of her and her parents from 1937...

Self Portrait with Artist's Parents (c.1937)

There is a lovely ArtUK piece on Veronica that mentions Averil and Charles, but here is a unique problem of living in a household of artists - they kept painting themselves and each other...

Averil Burleigh painting at 7 Wilbury Crescent (c.1940) Charles Burleigh

Charles painted Averil, then Averil and the kids...

The Burleigh Family Taking Tea at 7 Wilbury Crescent (1947) Charles Burleigh

Averil used Veronica as a model and Veronica painted Averil.  The two paintings I find most interesting are two portraits of Averil, one by Charles and one by Averil.  I was reminded of the Elizabeth Siddal self-portrait as opposed to Rossetti's image of her...

Self Portrait (1928)

Averil painted herself in her tempera glory, medieval and plain, with the rolling splendour of the hills behind her, lost in a medieval revelry.  This is in very sharp contrast to Charles's portrait...

Averil Burleigh (1930s) Charles Burleigh

I really like this portrait but she does look like a really classy knitwear model. In Charles's portrait, she is glam and modern, not medieval and androgynous. It is interesting how Averil's use of tempera seems to completely shape how she sees herself, and you can see the influence of others of the tempera school, like Joseph Southall and Maxwell Armfield. 

Washer Women (1930)

The works at the Royal Academy continued for all of them in the 1930s. Averil produced multiple paintings for the May exhibition ever year, which is impressive, and included Les Blanchisseuse and The Spring Poets, both in tempera, in 1930, Gossip, St Genevieve and Treasurers from the East all tempera, in 1931.  1932 brought Washing Day, The Garland and Susanna, again all tempera.

The Still Room (1928-33)

Her 1933 RA piece The Still Room might have been exhibited elsewhere as early as 1928, as well as A Rest and Three Generations. The decade continued with tempera pieces and oil, mixed in with water colour, all of them graceful and delicate with such vivid colours.

Hockey on the Ice (undated)

In 1936, she became a member of the Royal Institute but resigned in 1939 when she was one of just two women elected as an Associate of the Royal Water Colour Society.  She was also a founder of the Sussex Women's Art Club and seems to have been held in very high regard by the local newspapers.

A Girl with a Parasol in Conversation with Flowers (1920s)

In 1939, the family were still at 7 Wilbury Crescent with Charles listed as an artist teacher, Averil as an artist, Veronica the same, but Duncan as 'incapacitated'. I expected them to stay there forever, but in 1943, the Burleigh's Royal Academy address changed to Dinas, Bettws-Y-Coed in North Wales. Veronica served in the WAAF and I wonder if her parents and Duncan moved to North Wales for safety.  I thought 7 Wilbury Crescent had been bombed as there appears to be a block of modern flats in its place, but this site states that Veronica lived there until the 1970s, so if it had been demolished, it was a 1960s and onwards clearance.

Averil continued to paint and exhibit almost to her death in 1949 - her last RA piece was Oranges and Lemons in 1945. She died on 18th March, leaving Charles over £6K.  Sadly, he also died in 1956, with Duncan going between them in 1953, leaving Veronica alone in Wilbury Crescent with all her mother's medieval tempera art.

The Little Prince (undated)

When Averil died, the local papers wrote fulsome commentary on her importance and local retrospectives were arranged.  My favourite is the one from 1950 in the Eastbourne Chronicle which gave me many of the facts for this post about her schooling and which societies she belonged to.  According to the article, she also appeared in the Paris Salon and New English Art Club, which I can find nowhere else.  The exhibition it was reviewing included 57 paintings, the largest of them being Refugees, best suited to a hotel reception, according to the newspaper.

Endymion (1911)

So, why does the term 'Pre-Raphaelite' matter? To the critics in the 1930s, it obviously signified things, such as Keats, Medievalism, details. I can almost hear some of you from here shouting 'No!' because I think we are so used to the term being applied to anything vaguely floral or red-haired, and I have noticed in recent years the tightening up of 'Pre-Raphaelite'' and Pre-Raphaelite follower', but I agree with the critics in the 1930s, there is something in her drafting of figures, especially the dancers, that reminds me of Millais.  For some of you, the fact that I call her a 'Victorian artist' will not make sense as Edward VII was almost dead by the time she hit the RA but what makes someone Victorian? What makes someone modern? This is a conversation I look forward to having again...