Gerald Leslie Brockhurst RA 1890-1978
Jeunesse Dorée, 1942
signed and dated 1942 in pencil to margin, printed in black ink on wove paper
etching
8 ½ x 10 ¼ inches
probably from the edition of 75, although in his unpublished notes, Harold Wright lists an edition of 100
Further images
During the 1920s Brockhurst was primarily an etcher, focusing on female portraits and using his first wife Anäis as his model. The numerous etched and painted portraits bear witness to...
During the 1920s Brockhurst was primarily an etcher, focusing on female portraits and using his first wife Anäis as his model. The numerous etched and painted portraits bear witness to the fascination of her brand of beauty. However, in 1928, when Brockhurst was appointed a visitor to the Royal Academy Schools, he met Kathleen Woodward, the sixteen year old student who was to supersede Anäis in Brockhurst’s life as love, muse and later, wife.
By the early 1930s Brockhurst had returned to painting with a new muse: his teenage mistress (and later wife) Dorette Woodward and his haunting portraits of her were to reset his career as a successful and fashionable portrait painter. In the decade that followed, Brockhurst was the most sought-after and expensive portrait painter in Britain, charging 1,000 guineas for a painted portrait. The number of commissions he would accept was limited to twenty per year: his famous subjects included the Duchess of Windsor, Marlene Dietrich, Merle Oberon, J Paul Getty and Mrs Paul Mellon. His success as a portrait painter came after he was already well-established as an etcher, a career which reflected his skill as a draughtsman. His drawings, whether in watercolour, chalk, charcoal, pencil, ink or ink and wash, captured his subjects with a technique which was both instinctive and controlled, excelling in the representation of texture, such as skin, flesh, hair, lace, silk and embroidery.
In 1939 Brockhurst emigrated to America, living first in New York City and then New Jersey. There was no shortage of admirers and commissions for his meticulous technique and ability to convey a likeness.
By the date this print was made, Brockhurst’s career as a printmaker had ended. The pose of Dorette resembles that in the oil painting Ophelia, the artist’s diploma work, deposited the year after his election as Royal Academician in 1937 and shown in the Summer Exhibition of 1939. Forty years later it was hung in the Thirties exhibition at the Hayward Gallery, London. It was this show, which also included an impression of the etching Adolescence, which first alerted a new audience to the work of Gerald Brockhurst.
A study of Kathleen Woodward, Dorette, was one of only five etchings Brockhurst made after 1933, the other four being private commissions.
By the early 1930s Brockhurst had returned to painting with a new muse: his teenage mistress (and later wife) Dorette Woodward and his haunting portraits of her were to reset his career as a successful and fashionable portrait painter. In the decade that followed, Brockhurst was the most sought-after and expensive portrait painter in Britain, charging 1,000 guineas for a painted portrait. The number of commissions he would accept was limited to twenty per year: his famous subjects included the Duchess of Windsor, Marlene Dietrich, Merle Oberon, J Paul Getty and Mrs Paul Mellon. His success as a portrait painter came after he was already well-established as an etcher, a career which reflected his skill as a draughtsman. His drawings, whether in watercolour, chalk, charcoal, pencil, ink or ink and wash, captured his subjects with a technique which was both instinctive and controlled, excelling in the representation of texture, such as skin, flesh, hair, lace, silk and embroidery.
In 1939 Brockhurst emigrated to America, living first in New York City and then New Jersey. There was no shortage of admirers and commissions for his meticulous technique and ability to convey a likeness.
By the date this print was made, Brockhurst’s career as a printmaker had ended. The pose of Dorette resembles that in the oil painting Ophelia, the artist’s diploma work, deposited the year after his election as Royal Academician in 1937 and shown in the Summer Exhibition of 1939. Forty years later it was hung in the Thirties exhibition at the Hayward Gallery, London. It was this show, which also included an impression of the etching Adolescence, which first alerted a new audience to the work of Gerald Brockhurst.
A study of Kathleen Woodward, Dorette, was one of only five etchings Brockhurst made after 1933, the other four being private commissions.
