Doris Violet Blair, later Doris Bourguignon (born 1915) was a British 20th century artist who worked in a range of media. She is possibly best known for her depictions of life in Northern Ireland during World War II.

Biography

Blair was born in Belfast and studied at the

Belfast College of Art The Belfast School of Art, is a School in thUlster University Faculty of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciencesand is physically located at the Belfast campus. Following the results of the Research Excellence Framework 2014 Ulster is ranked within ...

and at the Royal College of Art. During World War II she worked for the Ministry of Information in the Postal Censorship department. Blair also painted scenes of bomb damage in Belfast and portraits of some of the British and American troops stationed there. Furthermore, she submitted a proposal to the War Artists' Advisory Committee to record the activities of women who had entered the industrial workforce for the war effort. The WAAC Committee didn't act on that proposal but later in the conflict did purchase a number of watercolours from Blair depicting women officers. After the war, Blair had a solo exhibition of her work in 1948 at the Belfast Museum and Art Gallery. Leaving Belfast she studied in New York under the architect Wallace Harrison and then in Paris with

Fernand Léger Joseph Fernand Henri Léger (; February 4, 1881 – August 17, 1955) was a French painting, painter, sculpture, sculptor, and film director, filmmaker. In his early works he created a personal form of cubism (known as "tubism") which he gradually ...

and

André Lhote André Lhote (5 July 1885 – 24 January 1962) was a French Cubist painter of figure subjects, portraits, landscapes and still life. He was also active and influential as a teacher and writer on art. Early life and education Lhote was born ...

. By 1975, Blair was living in Belgium and, working in a largely abstract style, she had a solo show in Brussels. During the 1990s, Blair settled in London and continued to paint, mostly working in acrylics. In 1982 the Ulster Museum acquired a collection of her watercolours from World War II.

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* {{DEFAULTSORT:Blair, Doris 1915 births 20th-century British painters 20th-century women artists from Northern Ireland Alumni of the Royal College of Art Alumni of Ulster University Artists from Belfast British war artists British women painters Modern painters World War II artists Year of death missing