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Evelyn Dunbar - Studies of Cyclamen coüm and for C. neapolitanum for page 55 of Gardeners Choice

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Evelyn Dunbar (1906 - 1960)

Studies of Cyclamen coüm and for C. neapolitanum for page 55 of Gardeners Choice, 1936 [HMO 260]

SKU: 6702
Pen & ink on paper
10 x 8 in. (25.3 x 20.3 cm)
Presentation:
folio

Size:
Height – 25.3cm x Width – 20.3cm

DESCRIPTION

Provenance:
Roger Folley; Alasdair Dunbar; Hammer Mill Oast Collection
Exhibited: Evelyn Dunbar – The Lost Works, Pallant House Gallery, October 2015 – February 2016, cat 45.

Literature: Evelyn Dunbar – The Lost Works, Sacha Llewellyn & Paul Liss, July 2015, cat. 45, page 90-91.




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. 

Go to artist page

MORE PICTURES BY ARTIST

SKU: 44941

Evelyn Dunbar (1906 - 1960)

Sketch for Opportunity, 1936

Original price was: £550.00.Current price is: £386.00.

SKU: 44940

Evelyn Dunbar (1906 - 1960)

Schematic plan for An English Calendar, 1938

Original price was: £925.00.Current price is: £648.00.

SKU: 44939

Evelyn Dunbar (1906 - 1960)

Various sketches including Putti playing instruments, 1937

Original price was: £450.00.Current price is: £316.00.

SKU: 44938

Evelyn Dunbar (1906 - 1960)

Boys at play, 1933

Original price was: £450.00.Current price is: £316.00.

SKU: 44937

Evelyn Dunbar (1906 - 1960)

Various sketches including a self-portrait c.1928

Original price was: £525.00.Current price is: £368.00.

SKU: 44936

Evelyn Dunbar (1906 - 1960)

Under Canvas ,1930

Original price was: £1,400.00.Current price is: £981.00.

SKU: 44935

Evelyn Dunbar (1906 - 1960)

Two illustrations for personification of June for Country Life 1938 Gardener’s Diary

Original price was: £850.00.Current price is: £596.00.

SKU: 44934

Evelyn Dunbar (1906 - 1960)

Sketches for A Farm Dictionary (Evans Bros., London, 1953)

Original price was: £550.00.Current price is: £386.00.

SKU: 44933

Evelyn Dunbar (1906 - 1960)

Illustration for A FARM DICTIONARY by Derek Chapman

Original price was: £550.00.Current price is: £386.00.

SKU: 11614

Evelyn Dunbar (1906 - 1960)

Seated Nude Study

Original price was: £325.00.Current price is: £228.00.

SKU: 44930

Evelyn Dunbar (1906 - 1960)

Letterhead proof for The Children’s Shop c. 1950

Original price was: £385.00.Current price is: £270.00.

SKU: 11925

Evelyn Dunbar (1906 - 1960)

Study for a Christmas card design, 1942 [HMO 340]

Original price was: £295.00.Current price is: £207.00.

SKU: 11924

Evelyn Dunbar (1906 - 1960)

Sketch for Milking Practice with Artificial Udders

Original price was: £550.00.Current price is: £386.00.

SKU: 11922

Evelyn Dunbar (1906 - 1960)

Studies of Young Girl

Original price was: £650.00.Current price is: £456.00.

SKU: 11921

Evelyn Dunbar (1906 - 1960)

Study of Dipsacus fullonum (common teasel)

Original price was: £495.00.Current price is: £347.00.

SKU: 11920

Evelyn Dunbar (1906 - 1960)

Phallic bud, 1937

Original price was: £395.00.Current price is: £277.00.

SKU: 11919

Evelyn Dunbar (1906 - 1960)

The Vegetable Gardener

Original price was: £425.00.Current price is: £298.00.

SKU: 11918

Evelyn Dunbar (1906 - 1960)

Fashion studies

Original price was: £695.00.Current price is: £487.00.

SKU: 11917

Evelyn Dunbar (1906 - 1960)

House and Garden – Greetings to you!

Original price was: £325.00.Current price is: £228.00.

SKU: 11916

Evelyn Dunbar (1906 - 1960)

Basket with Fruit and Flowers (2)

Original price was: £325.00.Current price is: £228.00.

SKU: 11914

Evelyn Dunbar (1906 - 1960)

Drawing of Carved Oak Buffet, 19th Century

Original price was: £325.00.Current price is: £228.00.

SKU: 11913

Evelyn Dunbar (1906 - 1960)

Study for June

Original price was: £450.00.Current price is: £316.00.

SKU: 11912

Evelyn Dunbar (1906 - 1960)

Illustration 2 for A Farm Dictionary

Original price was: £395.00.Current price is: £277.00.

SKU: 11911

Evelyn Dunbar (1906 - 1960)

Figures for Farm Dictionary Illustration

Original price was: £495.00.Current price is: £347.00.

SKU: 11612

Evelyn Dunbar (1906 - 1960)

Standing Nude Studies

Original price was: £450.00.Current price is: £316.00.

SKU: 11642

Evelyn Dunbar (1906 - 1960)

Woman Sewing c.1925

Original price was: £295.00.Current price is: £207.00.

SKU: 11636

Evelyn Dunbar (1906 - 1960)

Sketches of clarinets

Original price was: £280.00.Current price is: £197.00.

SKU: 11632

Evelyn Dunbar (1906 - 1960)

The Law-abiding Citizen! c.1927

Original price was: £745.00.Current price is: £522.00.

SKU: 11631

Evelyn Dunbar (1906 - 1960)

Sketch for Bedtime, c.1926

Original price was: £425.00.Current price is: £298.00.

SKU: 11630

Evelyn Dunbar (1906 - 1960)

Story Time, c.1926

Original price was: £750.00.Current price is: £526.00.

SKU: 11628

Evelyn Dunbar (1906 - 1960)

Some Games…c. 1958

Original price was: £900.00.Current price is: £631.00.

SKU: 11627

Evelyn Dunbar (1906 - 1960)

Fancy Dress Ball, 1926

Original price was: £1,475.00.Current price is: £1,033.00.

SKU: 11625

Evelyn Dunbar (1906 - 1960)

Service! c. 1924

Original price was: £255.00.Current price is: £179.00.

SKU: 11623

Evelyn Dunbar (1906 - 1960)

Laddie, The Intruder, c.1923

Original price was: £900.00.Current price is: £631.00.

SKU: 11622

Evelyn Dunbar (1906 - 1960)

What fools…c.1926

Original price was: £685.00.Current price is: £480.00.

SKU: 11615

Evelyn Dunbar (1906 - 1960)

Unidentified Woman with Parrot Brooch, c. 1927

Original price was: £485.00.Current price is: £340.00.

SKU: 11613

Evelyn Dunbar (1906 - 1960)

Reclining Male Nude Study

Original price was: £490.00.Current price is: £344.00.

SKU: 11611

Evelyn Dunbar (1906 - 1960)

Head and Shoulders Male Study

Original price was: £475.00.Current price is: £333.00.

SKU: 11609

Evelyn Dunbar (1906 - 1960)

April Fool!

Original price was: £480.00.Current price is: £337.00.

Sacred Music on Sundays'
SKU: 11508

Evelyn Dunbar (1906 - 1960)

Sacred Music on Sundays’

Original price was: £275.00.Current price is: £193.00.

Farm Illustration 4
SKU: 11509

Evelyn Dunbar (1906 - 1960)

Farm Illustration 4

Original price was: £375.00.Current price is: £263.00.

SKU: 11511

Evelyn Dunbar (1906 - 1960)

Landscape 1

Original price was: £700.00.Current price is: £491.00.

SKU: 11512

Evelyn Dunbar (1906 - 1960)

Landscape 2

Original price was: £975.00.Current price is: £683.00.

Artist Sketching
SKU: 11513

Evelyn Dunbar (1906 - 1960)

Artist Sketching

Original price was: £700.00.Current price is: £491.00.

SKU: 11514

Evelyn Dunbar (1906 - 1960)

View over fields

Original price was: £975.00.Current price is: £683.00.

SKU: 11515

Evelyn Dunbar (1906 - 1960)

View across farm buildings

Original price was: £1,375.00.Current price is: £963.00.

Child Playing the Banjo
SKU: 11524

Evelyn Dunbar (1906 - 1960)

Girl Playing the Banjo

Original price was: £525.00.Current price is: £368.00.

Dog Begging for Food
SKU: 11499

Evelyn Dunbar (1906 - 1960)

Miss T. and begging dog!

Original price was: £175.00.Current price is: £123.00.

Christmas Study
SKU: 11501

Evelyn Dunbar (1906 - 1960)

Christmas Tree in a pot

Original price was: £350.00.Current price is: £246.00.

Private
Speciality Dancers
SKU: 11503

Evelyn Dunbar (1906 - 1960)

Speciality Dancers
Various sketches
SKU: 11506

Evelyn Dunbar (1906 - 1960)

Sketches and motifs for a Christmas card design, 1946

Original price was: £575.00.Current price is: £403.00.

Farm Dictionary Illustration
SKU: 11507

Evelyn Dunbar (1906 - 1960)

Illustration for A Farm Dictionary

Original price was: £450.00.Current price is: £316.00.

Unidentified Design
SKU: 11488

Evelyn Dunbar (1906 - 1960)

Unidentified Design

Original price was: £250.00.Current price is: £176.00.

Design for a Christmas Card
SKU: 11489

Evelyn Dunbar (1906 - 1960)

Design for a Christmas Card

Original price was: £250.00.Current price is: £176.00.

Study fo Farmer's Dictionary
SKU: 11491

Evelyn Dunbar (1906 - 1960)

Sketch for An English Calendar 1938

Original price was: £495.00.Current price is: £347.00.

Unidentified Study
SKU: 11494

Evelyn Dunbar (1906 - 1960)

Unidentified study, c.1956

Original price was: £775.00.Current price is: £543.00.

Pealing Apples
SKU: 11497

Evelyn Dunbar (1906 - 1960)

Florence Dunbar Peeling Apples c.1922

Original price was: £300.00.Current price is: £211.00.

Seated Nude Study 2
SKU: 11468

Evelyn Dunbar (1906 - 1960)

Seated Nude Study 2

Original price was: £350.00.Current price is: £246.00.

Nude Study of Woman Sitting
SKU: 11469

Evelyn Dunbar (1906 - 1960)

Nude Study of Woman Sitting

Original price was: £600.00.Current price is: £421.00.

Nude Study with Hand on Hip
SKU: 11474

Evelyn Dunbar (1906 - 1960)

Nude Study with Hand on Hip

Original price was: £200.00.Current price is: £141.00.

Seated Nude Study 1
SKU: 11475

Evelyn Dunbar (1906 - 1960)

Seated Nude Study 1

Original price was: £275.00.Current price is: £193.00.

Figure Study for Women Working
SKU: 11477

Evelyn Dunbar (1906 - 1960)

Sketches of two Land Girls featuring in Men Stooking and Girls Learning to Stook. Pencil 1940

Original price was: £375.00.Current price is: £263.00.

Figure Study for April
SKU: 11478

Evelyn Dunbar (1906 - 1960)

Sketches for the personification of April for the Country Life 1938 Gardener’s Diary.

Original price was: £580.00.Current price is: £407.00.

Portrait
SKU: 11480

Evelyn Dunbar (1906 - 1960)

Portrait

Original price was: £375.00.Current price is: £263.00.

Study for Seated Woman reading
SKU: 11482

Evelyn Dunbar (1906 - 1960)

Study for Seated Woman reading

Original price was: £250.00.Current price is: £176.00.

Study for Seated Woman
SKU: 11483

Evelyn Dunbar (1906 - 1960)

Study for Seated Woman

Original price was: £250.00.Current price is: £176.00.

Preparatory Sketch for Joseph's Dream
SKU: 11486

Evelyn Dunbar (1906 - 1960)

Sketch for Joseph in Prison, 1947

Original price was: £600.00.Current price is: £421.00.

Sitting Nude Study with Umbrella
SKU: 11466

Evelyn Dunbar (1906 - 1960)

Sitting Nude Study with Umbrella

Original price was: £200.00.Current price is: £141.00.

Wheelbarrow Study
SKU: 11448

Evelyn Dunbar (1906 - 1960)

Wheelbarrow Study

Original price was: £280.00.Current price is: £197.00.

Vignette Sketch for Gardener's Choice
SKU: 11450

Evelyn Dunbar (1906 - 1960)

Vignette Sketch for Gardener’s Choice

Original price was: £320.00.Current price is: £225.00.

SKU: 11452

Evelyn Dunbar (1906 - 1960)

Studies for A Farm Dictionary (Evans Brothers, London) 1953

Original price was: £365.00.Current price is: £256.00.

Farming Sketch
SKU: 11453

Evelyn Dunbar (1906 - 1960)

Farming Sketch

Original price was: £375.00.Current price is: £263.00.

Plant studies
SKU: 11455

Evelyn Dunbar (1906 - 1960)

Plant studies, probably in connection with Country Life 1938 Gardener’s Diary.

Original price was: £225.00.Current price is: £158.00.

SKU: 11456

Evelyn Dunbar (1906 - 1960)

Flowers study

Original price was: £195.00.Current price is: £137.00.

Flower Study
SKU: 11459

Evelyn Dunbar (1906 - 1960)

Flower Study

Original price was: £380.00.Current price is: £267.00.

Various Figure Studies including a Ballerina
SKU: 11460

Evelyn Dunbar (1906 - 1960)

Various Figure Studies including a Ballerina

Original price was: £500.00.Current price is: £351.00.

Female Nude Study
SKU: 11461

Evelyn Dunbar (1906 - 1960)

Nude Study with artist at work

Original price was: £350.00.Current price is: £246.00.

Nude Figure Studies
SKU: 11462

Evelyn Dunbar (1906 - 1960)

Nude Figure Studies

Original price was: £300.00.Current price is: £211.00.

Chalk Nude Study with Sketching Figure in Foreground
SKU: 11464

Evelyn Dunbar (1906 - 1960)

Chalk Nude Study with Sketching Figure in Foreground

Original price was: £300.00.Current price is: £211.00.

Nurses
SKU: 11442

Evelyn Dunbar (1906 - 1960)

Studies for Standing by on Train 21.

Original price was: £350.00.Current price is: £246.00.

Farming sketch with Cattle
SKU: 11443

Evelyn Dunbar (1906 - 1960)

The horse gin

Original price was: £325.00.Current price is: £228.00.

SKU: 11444

Evelyn Dunbar (1906 - 1960)

Farmer with Shoulder Yolk – Study for Farm Dictionary

Original price was: £325.00.Current price is: £228.00.

Prune'
SKU: 11445

Evelyn Dunbar (1906 - 1960)

Prune’

Original price was: £300.00.Current price is: £211.00.

SKU: 11447

Evelyn Dunbar (1906 - 1960)

‘Bottle, Bowl, Box’

Original price was: £285.00.Current price is: £200.00.

Sketch of Woman's Land Army
SKU: 11439

Evelyn Dunbar (1906 - 1960)

Sketch for Land Girls Going to Bed.

Original price was: £375.00.Current price is: £263.00.

Sketch of Woman in Uniform
SKU: 11440

Evelyn Dunbar (1906 - 1960)

Portrait sketch of unidentified WAAF officer, 1944

Original price was: £800.00.Current price is: £561.00.

SKU: 11100

Evelyn Dunbar (1906 - 1960)

Royal College of Art Sketch Club Annual Summer Camp, 1930

Original price was: £1,850.00.Current price is: £1,296.00.

SKU: 11103

Evelyn Dunbar (1906 - 1960)

Pencil sketch for Portrait of an Airwoman, 1944

Original price was: £1,500.00.Current price is: £1,051.00.

SKU: 11095

Evelyn Dunbar (1906 - 1960)

Portrait of a Musician, 1924

Original price was: £995.00.Current price is: £697.00.

SKU: 11096

Evelyn Dunbar (1906 - 1960)

Ring-a-ring-a-rosies

Original price was: £880.00.Current price is: £617.00.

SKU: 11086

Evelyn Dunbar (1906 - 1960)

Trenching or double-digging, 1938

Original price was: £525.00.Current price is: £368.00.

SKU: 11088

Evelyn Dunbar (1906 - 1960)

A diagrammatic explanation of trenching or double digging

£1,750.00

SKU: 11089

Evelyn Dunbar (1906 - 1960)

Cape Capers!

Original price was: £350.00.Current price is: £246.00.

SKU: 11075

Evelyn Dunbar (1906 - 1960)

The Harvest of Hay, 1954

Original price was: £1,700.00.Current price is: £1,191.00.

SKU: 11074

Evelyn Dunbar (1906 - 1960)

Nude standing with hand on thigh

Original price was: £850.00.Current price is: £596.00.

SKU: 11066

Evelyn Dunbar (1906 - 1960)

Portrait Sketch of a Friend

Original price was: £300.00.Current price is: £211.00.

SKU: 11068

Evelyn Dunbar (1906 - 1960)

Four studies of a nude standing leaning against a partition

Original price was: £975.00.Current price is: £683.00.

SKU: 11064

Evelyn Dunbar (1906 - 1960)

Hop-picking, sketch for Farming Weekly, March 1954.

Original price was: £780.00.Current price is: £547.00.

SKU: 11057

Evelyn Dunbar (1906 - 1960)

Study of a WAAF at RAF Gravesend, 1944

Original price was: £975.00.Current price is: £683.00.

SKU: 11050

Evelyn Dunbar (1906 - 1960)

Sketches of men and women involved in various activities, of unknown purpose or destination

Original price was: £500.00.Current price is: £351.00.