Cheshire Antiques Consultant

British Oil Painting Flowers Pansy's & Daisies By Elizabeth Bridge RI ROI

£1,250.00

Spese di spedizione calcolate al momento del pagamento.

Add a classic touch of elegance to your home with this beautiful oil painting by Elizabeth Bridge. This breathtaking work of art is sure to captivate, featuring vibrant pansies and daisies in an unforgettable British style. Enhance your decor with this timeless piece!
Subject is still life of beautiful mixed flowers & daisies.
Oil on Windsor & Newton Rath bone canvas board.
Set in a beautiful decorative original gilt frame.
Signed bottom corner Bridge by the artist Elizabeth Bridge.
Numbered verso 1055160-2.
Artist biography Bridge, Elizabeth (1912-1996).
Elizabeth Bridge was born in Golders Green, Middlesex on 30th July 1912 to William and Clara Bridge (ne Dewey), the eldest of four children and the only daughter. Her father, William Alfred Bridge, was an accomplished cellist and the brother of renowned composer Frank Bridge. Her mother, Clara, was a contralto singer who, prior to her marriage to William, had performed professionally. According to a local newspaper article of the time, she and William were both soloists in a concert at the Dome, Brighton, in 1906. They were married in Stenting, East Sussex in 1911.
Despite her musical heritage, the young Elizabeth was more taken with painting: ‘For my third birthday, my mother gave me a box of watercolors. That was the start of my love affair with painting’ (Angela Raby, 1999, un paginated). This love of painting endured throughout her childhood and her education at Hendon County School, and, in 1928, at the age of 17, she won a scholarship to Hornsey School of Art. During her three years of study, she became devoted to painting and determined to earn her living through her art.
Upon her graduation in 1931, the Head of the school wrote an introductory letter to the artist, Joseph ‘Jossie’ Green up, highly recommending Elizabeth. This instigated a lifelong friendship with the Green up family and particularly with Josie's wife, May. Later the same year, Elizabeth began to work in his studio, modeling for his nude paintings and sitting for his celebrated portrait Distant Horizons. At the time, Josie was commissioned to produce illustrations for Pearson’s Magazine, which Elizabeth assisted with, as well as painting. She is also recorded as being a freelance painter during this period.
In 1939, when war broke out, Elizabeth joined the London Auxiliary Fire Service as a full-time auxiliary. She was based at the West End and Hampstead stations and served throughout the war, painting when her shifts of 48 hours on and 24 hours off allowed. She focused on her flower studies, developing her sensitive style and soft palette, and beginning to sell them through Mr Dingle's Gallery in Solders Green. She was left bereft when two of her younger brothers, Basil and John, were tragically killed whilst serving in the RAF. Her youngest brother, Richard, was still at school in 1939, when the war began.
Elizabeth first exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1947 with a painting entitled Winter Sweet. She made regular trips to London and, in 1948, had her first solo show at the Fowles Gallery. Her flower paintings had become an increasing commercial success since the late 1930s when Valentines of Dundee used them on their greetings cards and four members of the Royal Family chose them at Christmas. Her success continued when she was elected to the Royal Institute of Painters in Watercolor in 1950 and later the Royal Institute of Oil Painters. In a short autobiographical note written in 1970, Elizabeth listed the prestigious institutions at which she had exhibited, revealing the versatility of her talent: ‘Royal Scottish Academy, Paris Salon [where she received an honorable mention], Society of Women Artists, United Society of Artists, National Society of Artists and Industrial Painter’s Group etc.’ She continued to exhibit at the RA until 1966, seeing a total of eight of her paintings being shown in the intervening years between then and 1948.
Elizabeth and May spent seven productive years in Wales, where Elizabeth exhibited at the Royal National Eisteddfod and expanded her landscape repertoire, but they returned to the Cotswold in the early 1970s. She continued to paint until her last illness. In 1996, she died peacefully at home in Broadway, at the age of 84. Elizabeth’s ashes were scattered by May at the source of the River Wind rush, which flowed through the Cotswold Hills and into London, tracing back the trajectory of their happy lives together.
After her death, for unknown reasons, all records of Elizabeth’s expansive sixty-year career were destroyed. This biography owes much to Angela Raby’s The Forgotten Service and her biographical notes on May and Josie Greenup, as well as Elizabeth. As Greenup’s niece, Angela Raby wrote of the pair: ‘May and Elizabeth lived together from 1946 until 1996. Their friendship from the early thirties until Elizabeth’s death was enduring. May requested that Elizabeth’s story be told alongside her own.’ In 1997, a large group of her paintings were sold at auction. Many of their whereabouts remain unknown.
Further Reading:
Angela Raby, ‘The Forgotten Service: Auxiliary Ambulance Station 39 (After the Battle)’, privately published, 1999 Angela Ray, ‘Biographical Notes on Joseph ‘Jossie’ Green up, May Green up and Elizabeth Bridge’, 1999 (Held in The Women’s Library, London School of Economics).
An exceptionally sought after collectible artwork.
Set in a traditional stylish gilt frame.
Circa late 20th century.
Provenance label verso, artwork numbered 1055160-2.
Such a delightful scene to the eye, a great conversation piece.
Highly sought after due to the collectible nature of the subject's still life floral matter and such elaborate detail.
With hanging thread on the back ready for immediate home wall display.
Incredible conversation piece for your guests.
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Condition report.
Offered in fine used condition.
Front painting surface in good order. Having some craquement, paint loss, stains, foxing in place. The frame has general wear, scuffs, stains, & some losses, chips commensurate with usage & age.
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Dimensions in centimetres of the frame

High (44cm)
Wide (33.5cm)
Depth thickness of frame (2cm)