Adams
Lot 44
Gerald Leslie Brockhurst (1890-1978)Portrait of Florence Forsyth Oil on panel, 60.7 x 47.4cm (23¾ x 18¾'')Signed Provenance: Acquired directly from the artist by the sitter's family, prior to 1931; thence by descent. A fine example of a vivacious portrait of a young woman, Florence Forsyth, holding a sprig of snowdrops, against a stylised mountain backdrop by Gerald Leslie Brockhurst. Thought to date from the late 1920s, when Florence was a singer in London, it was commissioned by her father.Celebrated as a society portrait painter from the early 1920s through several decades, Brockhurst was also recognised as a printmaker of rare ability. Born in Edgebaston, Birmingham in 1890, he suffered from recurrent ear infections as a child and wrote poorly, but was precociously good at drawing. So much so that he was accepted in art school aged 12, first in Birmingham, then London. His self-portrait aged 15 is in the Scottish National Portrait Gallery. A travel scholarship brought him to France and Italy, where he was particularly impressed by the work of Piero della Francesca, Botticelli and da Vinci. His beautiful, Renaissance-style portrait of an unnamed woman, titled Ranunculus, (in Sheffield City Galleries), like Florence clutching a sprig of flowers, is judged an important work in pre-war British art by Kenneth McConkey in ‘The British Portrait.’ He also met, and in 1914 married, Anaïs Melisande Folin. They spent the war years mostly in Ireland, and visited Connemara. Besides painting some landscapes, Brockhurst painted Folin as the personification of Ireland against a mountainous Connemara setting (now in the Hunterian Gallery in Glasgow), and several portraits including those of Co Clare-born poet Francis McNamara (like Brockhurst part of Augustus John’s social circle) and Thomas Bodkin’s fiancée Aileen Cox (now in the National Gallery of Ireland collection, with several of Brockhurst’s Irish graphic works). Back in London from 1919, Brockhurst quickly became known as a printmaker and portrait painter. Although he was a slow, meticulous worker and demanding of his sitters, he became the portraitist of choice. Subjects included Margaret, Duchess of Argyll (now in Tate Britain), Wallis Simpson, the Duchess of Windsor and the society beauty Florence Lambert, wife of composer Constant Lambert.Brockhurst’s portraits are brilliantly lit. He had the instincts of a skilled Hollywood lighting-cameraman and his ability to lend his sitters a film star gloss was often noted. In the 1930s he could demand 1000 guineas per commission. But when his relationship with his model Kathleen ‘Dorette’ Woodward became public his marriage ended acrimoniously and he and Woodward moved to the United States, settling in New Jersey (they married in 1947). His services were as much in demand as ever and his subjects included Merle Oberon, Marlene Dietrich, J Paul Getty, several of the Rothschilds and many more. But by the time of his death, in 1978 (Woodward lived until 1995), he was a relatively neglected figure. Since the turn of the century, however, there has been renewed interest in his work, with several exhibitions in the US, and he is increasingly recognised as a significant 20th century printmaker and portrait painter.
