Evelyn Dunbar (1906 - 1960)

Studies II for the cover of Gardeners Choice, 1936-37 [HMO 363]

£380.00

SKU: 9644
Pencil, pen and ink on paper
11 x 8 in. (28 x 20.2 cm)
Presentation:
folio

Size:
Height – 28cm x Width – 20.2cm

1 in stock

DESCRIPTION

Provenance:
Private collection
Exhibited: Evelyn Dunbar – The Lost Works, Pallant House Gallery, October 2015 – February 2016, cat 35.

Literature: Evelyn Dunbar – The Lost Works, Sacha Llewellyn & Paul Liss, July 2015, cat. 35, page 84-85.


Gardeners’ Choice

“Following the completion of the Brockley murals Evelyn Dunbar looked for ways to
earn some money, and was fortunate to be asked by Catherine Carswell, a Hampstead
neighbour, to illustrate her and her husband’s book The Scots Week-End and Caledonian
Vade-Mecum for Host, Guest and Wayfarer, inspired by Francis Meynell’s The Week-
End Book. Following its publication by Routledge in the summer of 1936 she asked
one of the partners, Mr Ragg, whether the firm had anything horticultural she could
illustrate: his reply was negative unless you can suggest someone who could write
something really new on gardening.’ She passed this on to Charles Mahoney with
the comment Now mate what about it.’ (quoted Gill Clarke, p.54) Thus the seeds of
Gardeners’ Choice were sown.
Although her earlier children’s book illustrations tended to be soapily pretty in a
Margaret Tarrantish manner, for The Scots Week-End Book she honed a more incisive
style of black pen and ink drawing, refining this further for Gardeners’ Choice to create
illustrations reminiscent of those in early herbals or eighteenth century chapbooks.
That up to this stage she did not have a clearly defined style is born out by her wash
illustration for Wuthering Heights (CAT 129) commissioned for an article by Kenneth
Clark in the November 1936 issue of Signature, which, like some of Paul Nash’s early
work, is in a distinctly pre-raphaelite manner. However for Gardeners’ Choice she
reverted exclusively to pen and ink.
The division of labour between Dunbar and Mahoney in Gardeners’ Choice is to all
intents and purpose indistinguishable. The introductory chapter, Community of Plants’,
demonstrates their close collaboration: In this book we present a small selection of plants which our practical knowledge of gardening and our personal outlook have led us to make.
In addition to our natural pleasure in beautiful plants and our experience in raising and
cultivating them, we have gained a close intimacy through drawing and painting them.
We have observed them as artists as well as gardeners, and have necessarily been
made aware not only of the garden value of a plant and the intrinsic beauty of its flower, but of proportions, forms and contrasts, of the subtle relations of the leaf to the bloom, or the plant to its neighbour. These observations have bred in us an animate point of view which is the inspiration of our experimental gardening and the basis of our writing.’
This fusion of authorship applies as much to drawings as to text. Gill Clarke in her 2006 book, Evelyn Dunbar: War and Country, suggested that Dunbar did the vignettes with Mahoney drawing the main large plates’, (GC p.58) but with the evidence before us in this exhibition of Dunbar’s drawings of the cyclamen, eryngiums and snake’s head
fritillary (CAT 45, 42, 43) ‚Äì respectively reproduced on pages 55, 81 and 89 in Gardeners’ Choice ‚Äì such a distinction no longer holds good.
Looking at the ten studies of Gladiolus tristis presented here (CAT 46-55) it is instructive to note how obsessively Dunbar drew and redrew each plate to achieve the clarity and precision she and Mahoney were seeking. It is also interesting to realise that, despite such claims in Community of Plants’ (p.7) as: With one of us Hieraceum aurantiacum… has behaved most meekly for years… With the other it has shown signs of becoming a menace to a small garden’, Mahoney did not have a garden of his own until he and his brother bought Oak Cottage at Wrotham in 1937, the year Gardeners’ Choice was published. It is possible that he grew some plants in his mother’s small back garden at Anerley on the Kentish-London border but most of the plants discussed were probably grown at The Cedars, and in the sheet of sketches (CAT 56-58) we get several vignettes of Mahoney seated in the garden there drawing diligently..”
Peyton Skipwith

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THE ARTIST

Evelyn Dunbar
Evelyn
Dunbar
1906 - 1960

Evelyn Dunbar studied at Rochester School of Art, Chelsea School
of Art (1927) and the Royal College of Art (1929’33). She painted
murals from 1933 -36 at Brockley School, a collaboration with her
RCA tutor (and lover) Cyril Mahoney (1903’1968) and in 1937
they wrote and illustrated together Gardeners’ Choice. 

In 1938 she set up the Blue Gallery in Rochester, exhibiting her
own work alongside that of Edward Bawden (1903’1989) and
Barnett Freedman (1901’1958) and others. In 1940 she was
appointed an official war artist, becoming the only woman (amongst
36 men) to be given a full time salaried position by the WAAC. 

She held her only solo exhibition at Withersdane, Wye, Kent
in 1953, although the WAAC included numerous pieces in touring
exhibitions ranging from Aberdeen Art Gallery to MOMA, New York. 

A posthumous exhibition was held in 2006 at St Barbe
Museum and Art Gallery, and in 2015 Liss Llewellyn mounted a
major retrospective of her recently rediscovered studio at Pallant
House Gallery. 

MORE PICTURES BY ARTIST

Evelyn Dunbar (1906 - 1960)
Marjorie Reading, 1931

£875.00

Evelyn Dunbar (1906 - 1960)
Woman Sewing c.1925

£295.00

Evelyn Dunbar (1906 - 1960)
Young Woman Reading a Letter, c. 1927

£475.00

Evelyn Dunbar (1906 - 1960)
Sketches of clarinets

£280.00

Evelyn Dunbar (1906 - 1960)
Cat Sketches, c.1926

£275.00

Evelyn Dunbar (1906 - 1960)
The Law-abiding Citizen! c.1927

£745.00

Evelyn Dunbar (1906 - 1960)
Sketch for Bedtime, c.1926

£425.00

Evelyn Dunbar (1906 - 1960)
Story Time, c.1926

£750.00

Evelyn Dunbar (1906 - 1960)
Some Games…c. 1958

£900.00

Evelyn Dunbar (1906 - 1960)
Fancy Dress Ball, 1926

£1,325.00

Evelyn Dunbar (1906 - 1960)
‘Saturnalia’ c.1926

£1,950.00

Evelyn Dunbar (1906 - 1960)
Service! c. 1924

£255.00

Evelyn Dunbar (1906 - 1960)
Laddie, The Intruder, c.1923

£900.00

Evelyn Dunbar (1906 - 1960)
What fools…c.1926

£685.00

Evelyn Dunbar (1906 - 1960)
Portrait of William Dunbar, 1922

£895.00

Evelyn Dunbar (1906 - 1960)
Woman in Red, c. 1927

£475.00

Evelyn Dunbar (1906 - 1960)
Young Boy Scout, c 1925

£950.00

Reserved
Evelyn Dunbar (1906 - 1960)
Girl looking upwards, c.1927
Evelyn Dunbar (1906 - 1960)
Unidentified Woman with Parrot Brooch, c. 1927

£485.00

Evelyn Dunbar (1906 - 1960)
Seated Nude Study

£325.00

Evelyn Dunbar (1906 - 1960)
Reclining Male Nude Study

£490.00

Evelyn Dunbar (1906 - 1960)
Standing Nude Studies

£350.00

Evelyn Dunbar (1906 - 1960)
Head and Shoulders Male Study

£475.00

Evelyn Dunbar (1906 - 1960)
April Fool!

£480.00

Evelyn Dunbar (1906 - 1960)
Study for Children and Hands

£375.00

Evelyn Dunbar (1906 - 1960)
The Young Artist, circa 1920

£760.00

Evelyn Dunbar (1906 - 1960)
Children Playing

£650.00

Evelyn Dunbar (1906 - 1960)
Child Playing the Banjo

£375.00

Evelyn Dunbar (1906 - 1960)
Study related to Princess Caroline

£250.00

Evelyn Dunbar (1906 - 1960)
Unidentified Etching

£350.00

Evelyn Dunbar (1906 - 1960)
Sacred Music on Sundays’

£275.00

Evelyn Dunbar (1906 - 1960)
Study 2 related to Princess Caroline

£775.00

Evelyn Dunbar (1906 - 1960)
Landscape 1

£700.00

Evelyn Dunbar (1906 - 1960)
Landscape 2

£975.00

Evelyn Dunbar (1906 - 1960)
Artist Sketching

£700.00

Evelyn Dunbar (1906 - 1960)
View over fields

£975.00

Evelyn Dunbar (1906 - 1960)
View across farm buildings

£1,675.00

Evelyn Dunbar (1906 - 1960)
Morning Tasks

£550.00

Evelyn Dunbar (1906 - 1960)
Unidentified study, c.1956

£775.00

Evelyn Dunbar (1906 - 1960)
Laddie, the family dog, asleep on a chair

£900.00

Evelyn Dunbar (1906 - 1960)
Florence Dunbar Peeling Apples c.1922

£300.00

Evelyn Dunbar (1906 - 1960)
Miss T. and begging dog!

£175.00

Evelyn Dunbar (1906 - 1960)
Christmas Tree in a pot

£350.00

Evelyn Dunbar (1906 - 1960)
Figure Sitting

£350.00

Evelyn Dunbar (1906 - 1960)
Various sketches, mostly of the dancing figure of Pomona for a Christmas card design for 1947

£575.00

Evelyn Dunbar (1906 - 1960)
Flower Show Illustrations

£135.00

Evelyn Dunbar (1906 - 1960)
Seated Nude Study 2

£350.00

Evelyn Dunbar (1906 - 1960)
Nude Study of Woman Sitting

£600.00

Evelyn Dunbar (1906 - 1960)
Nude Study with Hand on Hip

£200.00

Evelyn Dunbar (1906 - 1960)
Seated Nude Study 1

£275.00

Evelyn Dunbar (1906 - 1960)
Figure study for the personification of April for Country Life 1938 Gardener’s Diary, 1937

£580.00

Evelyn Dunbar (1906 - 1960)
Portrait

£375.00

Evelyn Dunbar (1906 - 1960)
Study for Seated Woman reading

£250.00

Evelyn Dunbar (1906 - 1960)
Study for Seated Woman

£250.00

Evelyn Dunbar (1906 - 1960)
The Farming Year Poster

£500.00

Evelyn Dunbar (1906 - 1960)
Farming Equipement 1

£365.00

Evelyn Dunbar (1906 - 1960)
Farming Sketch

£375.00

Evelyn Dunbar (1906 - 1960)
Various Figure Studies including a Ballerina

£500.00

Evelyn Dunbar (1906 - 1960)
Nude Study with artist at work

£350.00

Evelyn Dunbar (1906 - 1960)
Nude Figure Studies

£300.00

Evelyn Dunbar (1906 - 1960)
Chalk Nude Study with Sketching Figure in Foreground

£300.00

Evelyn Dunbar (1906 - 1960)
Sitting Nude Study with Umbrella

£200.00

Evelyn Dunbar (1906 - 1960)
The horse gin

£325.00

Evelyn Dunbar (1906 - 1960)
Study for Farm Dictionary

£325.00

Evelyn Dunbar (1906 - 1960)
Prune’

£300.00

Evelyn Dunbar (1906 - 1960)
Royal College of Art Sketch Club Annual Summer Camp, 1930

£895.00

Evelyn Dunbar (1906 - 1960)
Portrait of an Unidentified Woman

£970.00

Evelyn Dunbar (1906 - 1960)
Pencil sketch for Portrait of an Airwoman, 1944

£1,500.00

Evelyn Dunbar (1906 - 1960)
Seated Woman with Sleeping Dog

£1,500.00

Evelyn Dunbar (1906 - 1960)
Portrait of an Unidentified Man, c.1925

£1,375.00

Evelyn Dunbar (1906 - 1960)
Ring-a-ring-a-rosies

£795.00

Evelyn Dunbar (1906 - 1960)
Trenching or double-digging, 1938

£525.00

Evelyn Dunbar (1906 - 1960)
A diagrammatic explanation of trenching or double digging

£1,750.00

Evelyn Dunbar (1906 - 1960)
Cape Capers!

£350.00

Evelyn Dunbar (1906 - 1960)
Moving into the Cedars, 1924

£1,375.00

Evelyn Dunbar (1906 - 1960)
Nude standing with hand on thigh

£600.00

Evelyn Dunbar (1906 - 1960)
Portrait sketch of an unidentified friend

£395.00

Evelyn Dunbar (1906 - 1960)
Sketch of Family Reading

£475.00

Evelyn Dunbar (1906 - 1960)
Studies of Leaves, 1930’s

£1,475.00

Evelyn Dunbar (1906 - 1960)
Sketches of men and women involved in various activities, of unknown purpose or destination

£500.00

Evelyn Dunbar (1906 - 1960)
The Artist at Her Drawing Board, mid-1920s

£450.00

Evelyn Dunbar (1906 - 1960)
Potato Harvesting, 1954

£785.00

Evelyn Dunbar (1906 - 1960)
The garden of The Elms, 1956

£1,950.00

Evelyn Dunbar (1906 - 1960)
The Garden at the Elms, Winter, 1956

£1,950.00

Evelyn Dunbar (1906 - 1960)
Study for Gardener’s Choice: Himalayan Primrose with vignettes of a gardener to the margins

£975.00

Evelyn Dunbar (1906 - 1960)
Life Class with full-length female nude in profile

£750.00

Evelyn Dunbar (1906 - 1960)
Sketches of children in various poses.

£1,100.00

Evelyn Dunbar (1906 - 1960)
Preliminary study for Mercatora

£385.00

Evelyn Dunbar (1906 - 1960)
Sheet of African figures

£745.00

Evelyn Dunbar (1906 - 1960)
Sheet of figure studies with artist looking at herself in a handheld mirror

£800.00

Evelyn Dunbar (1906 - 1960)
Sheet of studies for Mercatora

£800.00

Evelyn Dunbar (1906 - 1960)
Artist’s sister sewing

£1,400.00

Evelyn Dunbar (1906 - 1960)
Study for allegorical figure

£700.00

Evelyn Dunbar (1906 - 1960)
Faith, Hope and Charity, 1950

£400.00

Evelyn Dunbar (1906 - 1960)
Study of Charles Mahoney drawing plants

£520.00

Evelyn Dunbar (1906 - 1960)
The artist’s sister sleeping in an armchair

£425.00

Evelyn Dunbar (1906 - 1960)
Sheet of non-contemporaneous studies, some with reference to images in Country Life 1938 Gardener’s Diary, others experimenting with Indian ink, c.1948

£975.00

Evelyn Dunbar (1906 - 1960)
Studies of leaves and flowers.

£575.00

Evelyn Dunbar (1906 - 1960)
Art school study of a lady seated on a Windsor chair

£950.00

Evelyn Dunbar (1906 - 1960)
Sheet of studies with figures gardening

£1,400.00