Alison Edith Debenham (later Le Plat; 1903-1967) was a British painter and artist.

Biography

Debenham was born in 1903 to Sir Ernest Ridley Debenham, 1st Baronet, and his wife, Lady Cicely, of the

Debenhams Debenhams plc was a British department store chain operating in the United Kingdom, Denmark and the Republic of Ireland. It was founded in 1778 as a single store in London and grew to 178 locations across those countries, also owning the Danish ...

department store family business. After attending a

finishing school A finishing school focuses on teaching young women social graces and upper-class cultural rites as a preparation for entry into society. The name reflects that it follows on from ordinary school and is intended to complete the education, wit ...

in Paris, Alison Debenham studied at the

Slade School of Art The UCL Slade School of Fine Art (informally The Slade) is the art school of University College London (UCL) and is based in London, England. It has been ranked as the UK's top art and design educational institution. The school is organised as ...

in London from 1923 to 1926. In 1928 she returned to live in Paris before, in 1929, moving to the south of France where she studied with the French painter

Simon Bussy Albert Simon Aimé Bussy (30 June 1870 – 22 May 1954) was a French painter who married the English novelist Dorothy Bussy. He knew and painted many members of the Bloomsbury circle. Biography Bussy was born in Dole and came from a family ...

. There she met several prominent artists and authors including

André Gide André Paul Guillaume Gide (; 22 November 1869 – 19 February 1951) was a French author and winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature (in 1947). Gide's career ranged from its beginnings in the Symbolism (arts), symbolist movement, to the advent o ...

and

Henri Matisse Henri Émile Benoît Matisse (; 31 December 1869 – 3 November 1954) was a French visual artist, known for both his use of colour and his fluid and original draughtsmanship. He was a draughtsman, printmaker, and sculptor, but is known prima ...

and, in 1930, married artist Rene Le Plat. Throughout her artistic career, Debenham mostly painted portraits of friends and family members but also created a series of portraits of the workers on her father's estate. She regularly exhibited in both London and Paris and her first solo exhibition was at the Galerie Vignon in Paris in 1932. In 1935 she had a solo show at the Zwemmer Gallery in London and for a time she was associated with the

Euston Road School The Euston Road School is a term applied to a group of English painters, active either as staff or students at the School of Drawing and Painting in London between 1937 and 1939. The School opened in October 1937 at premises in Fitzroy Street bef ...

of artists. A memorial exhibition for Debenham was held at the Richmond Hill Gallery in 1968 and a further retrospective was mounted by the Belgrave Gallery in London in 1976.

References

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Debenham, Alison 1903 births 1967 deaths 20th-century English painters 20th-century English women 20th-century British women artists Alumni of the Slade School of Fine Art Daughters of baronets Alison English women painters

Biography

References

Further reading

External links