Winifred Elizabeth Beatrice Hardman (1890-1972)

 

‘Eve (The Snake)’

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Signed bottom right Hardman, on a sticker at the reverse titled ‘The Snake’ and with address Walton End, Walton Lane, Bosham, Chichester, and Price 50 gns.'

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Oil on board, 91.5 x 71.4 cm

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Winifred, born at Rawtenstall, Lancashire 25 May 1890, daughter of George Henry Hardman (1855-1899) a rich
wool and cotton manufacturer, and Anne Eliza née Catterall (1855-1934), was educated at home by a governess. She studied from 1913 till 1921 at St, John’s School of Art and at the Royal Academy Schools, winning the Armitage bronze and silver medals for perspective. Here she was a member of the New Autumn Group of 21 artists formed in November 1925 around St. John’s Wood and exhibiting together. Living in Ipswich, from 1945 till 1949, she was a member of the Ipswich Art Club. Around 1953 she settled in Bosham where she died in 1972, remaining unmarried. Her work was rather unpretentious, flowers and portraits until she spent some time in South Africa in the 1930s where she was much inspired by indigenous African life and culture. In Africa, her oeuvre changed radically, and she made her most inspired and frivolous work in this period.