Dorothea Sharp
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Dorothea Sharp 1874-1955 (attrib)
Mother and Daughter on a Summer`s Day
Oil Sketch on Panel 66cm x 41cm unframed
price on application
Born in Dartford, Kent, Dorothea Sharp studied at art school
in Richmond and, despite parental disapproval, went on to the Regent Street
Polytechnic, equipped with a one hundred pound inheritance, studying under Sir
David Murray and the plein air painter George Clausen, before going on to Paris.
Here Dorothea Sharp was directly influenced by the French impressionists,
particularly Monet`s treatment of subject and colour. In fact, she believed
colour to be as important as drawing in the creation of a work, though also
exercised a strict concern for the importance of composition. A competent
figure, landscape and flower painter, Dorothea Sharp was a quick worker and
painted with a heavily loaded palette, using paint generously. Her brushwork
though was economical with detail and spontaneous, as she fully believed in less
being more to convey the lightness of her subjects, which were often children.
Her resulting pictures are abundant with fresh colour, movement, warmth,
dazzling sun - characteristics that fit perfectly with the youth and vivacity of
her subjects.
After Paris however, Dorothea Sharp was not restricted to her permanent base at
the Maida Vale Studios in London, but traveled widely, both on her own and with
fellow painter and designer Marcella Smith, painting prolifically across
Southern Europe, working en plein air. Her numerous Royal Academy and other
exhibits from 1901 onwards feature a wide range of work from these travels and
from her stays with Marcella and the Parks at the Berkshire Downs.
Studio Talk`s exhibition review of 1912 reproduces `The Wind on the Hill`, a
work exhibited at the RBA and highly reminiscent of her friend Laura Knight,
proclaiming it a picture `which gives great distinction to the exhibition this
year`. But it was on her summer visits to St Ives in the 1920`s that Dorothea
Sharp could fully indulge in the painting of what has become her trademark, and
most sought after, subject; ` children at the beach `. A specialty for which she
became justly renowned.
In 1928 Moffat Linder elected her to the St Ives Society of Artists as an
honorary member and during the late 1930`s Dorothea Sharp settled for several
years in St Ives, working from the Balcony Studio in St Andrews Street. Here she
involved herself fully in artistic society, earning the respect of the artistic
establishment and exhibiting alongside Laura Knight, Alfred Munnings, Stanhope
Forbes etc. For some years she managed the Lanham Galleries with Marcella Smith,
where years before they had shown their work. Lanham`s played an important part
in the careers of nearly all the now recognized painters of the Newlyn and St
Ives Schools who had exhibited there. Dorothea Sharp also became life-long
friends with like-minded painter John Park and his wife Peggy.
In the mid forties, Dorothea Sharp returned permanently to Blomfield Road, Maida
Vale, London working right up to her death in December 1955. Her last work was a
large flower picture to hang above the fireplace of the Empress of Britain.
RBA 1907, ROI 1922, ASWA 1903, SWA 1908
To purchase the Dorothea Sharp or make enquiries phone Peter or Maggie on 01398 323286 or email
peter@exmoorantiques.co.uk
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