Edna Clark Hall -1879-1979

Draughtsman, Watercolorist and printmaker, born in Shipbourne, Kent. As a student at the Slade School of Art in the 1890s, Edna Clarke Hall was part of a gifted generation of artists that included Gwen and Augustus John,William Orpen and Ambrose McEvoy. Although she took lessons in oil painting, she decided it was not for her.

“I wanted to draw a subject quickly, seize it, convey my impression,” she wrote. As a result, watercolour became her chosen medium.Marriage and children then followed in quick succession, but she continued drawing. In 1915, she and her husband, a keen sailor, rented a cottage in Gillan Creek, south of the Helford Estuary in Cornwall, where they summered until 1927. There she produced an abundance of open-air sketches of her children and their Cornish friends exploring rock pools, crewing on boats or simply relaxing.

Many were exhibited at the Redfern Gallery in Cork Street, London, her chosen gallery for more than 20 years, which placed her work in several museums including the V&A, the British Museum, the Ashmolean in Oxford and the Fitzwilliam in Cambridge. However, in 1941, her studio and much of her work were destroyed by the Blitz.

To have the opportunity to purchase one of her watercolours is rare.

The Tate Gallery, British Museum and Victoria & Albert Museum hold her work.