Hilda May Gordon

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Hilda May Gordon
Born20 September 1874
Isle of Wight, England
Died21 November 1972(1972-11-21) (aged 98)
Chelsea, London
NationalityBritish
EducationThe Herkomer School
Known forPainting

Hilda May Gordon (20 September 1874 – 21 November 1972) was a widely travelled British artist, known for her watercolour paintings of landscapes and figures.[1]

Biography[]

Gordon grew up on the Isle of Wight to Scottish parents who had previously lived in South Africa.[2] Gordon studied under Hubert von Herkomer at his art school in Bushey and was also taught by Frank Brangwyn.[3] During 1900 she accomplished Brangwyn on a sketching trip to France.[4] In 1907 she had a solo show at a Bond Street gallery.[2] During World War I she served as a Voluntary Aid Detachment nurse in Europe and the Middle East, eventually returning to Britain in 1921.[2] In 1922 she embarked on an independent round-the-world trip which eventually took six years to complete and involved visiting 22 different countries, including a number of Balkan countries, Greece, India, China, Korea and Japan.[4][2] She endured numerous dangers and stayed in both local huts and palaces, witnessed a volcano exploding in Bali and a royal funeral pyre in Siam.[3][4] Gordon painted throughout the trip and her final stop before returning to England was in New York during March 1928, where she exhibited watercolours from her travels.[4] A similar exhibition was held at the Fine Art Society gallery in London when she returned to England.[2] Gordon became a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society in 1928.[1] She continued to paint and travel and in due course settled in Chelsea in London, where she died in 1972.[1] The Martyn Gregory Gallery held a retrospective in Britain in 1987 and a further, short, exhibition of her work in New York in 2018.[4]

References[]

  1. ^ Jump up to: a b c Grant M. Waters (1975). Dictionary of British Artists Working 1900-1950. Eastbourne Fine Art.
  2. ^ Jump up to: a b c d e David Buckman (2006). Artists in Britain Since 1945 Vol 1, A to L. Art Dictionaries Ltd. ISBN 0 953260 95 X.
  3. ^ Jump up to: a b Frances Spalding (1990). 20th Century Painters and Sculptors. Antique Collectors' Club. ISBN 1 85149 106 6.
  4. ^ Jump up to: a b c d e "Hilda May Gordon to be the focus of Martyn Gregory's exhibition in Master Drawings New York". artdaily.org. 2018. Retrieved 9 August 2018.
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