Olga Edwardes (born Olga Florence Solomon; 20 May 1915 – 23 July 2008) was a South African-born
British
British may refer to:
Peoples, culture, and language
* British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories, and Crown Dependencies.
** Britishness, the British identity and common culture
* British English, ...
Herbert Baker
Sir Herbert Baker (9 June 1862 – 4 February 1946) was an English architect remembered as the dominant force in South African architecture for two decades, and a major designer of some of New Delhi's most notable government structures. He wa ...
, but he committed suicide in 1920 at the age of 33, in Cape Town.
Her mother was Jean Elizabeth Emily Cox née Hamilton (1885–1946), a South African actress, who was a divorcée (at least twice) when she married Solomon in 1914 in Cape Town. They also had a son, Paul Lionel Joseph (1918–1987).
Her mother married again in Cape Town in 1922 to Hugh Edwards (1887-?), a company secretary, who thus became the stepfather of Olga and Paul.
Olga Edwardes married P/O Anthony Max Baerlein in 1941, but he was killed in action later the same year.
In 1946, she married her second husband Nicholas Davenport, an economist and journalist who was more than twenty years her senior. He died in 1979; she died in
Elstree
Elstree is a large village in the Hertsmere borough of Hertfordshire, England. It is about northwest of central London on the former A5 road, that follows the course of Watling Street. In 2011, its population was 5,110. It forms part of t ...
in 2008.
Years 1930–1956
Olga Edwards, or maybe Olga Solomon, first exhibited paintings in Cape Town at aged about 15. A year later, she came to England with her mother and her brother, where she wanted to study painting, acting and ballet, and danced in the ''corps de ballet'' in a company of Anton Dolin.
Edwardes appeared in several films and plays from the mid-1930s into the mid-1950s.
Filmography
Theatre work
;Repertory:
* This is where Edwardes learned stagecraft. In Oxford rep there is a new play every week, including one that she took a bow in ''Romeo and Juliet'' with John Byron.
* In the Royal Shakespeare Company, during the first half of 1936, at the new Memorial Theatre, Stratford-on-Avon:
::
* During the war, she spent a year with the BBC Repertory Company.
;West End:
* ''As You Like It'' – Open Air 1934 – the stage débuts of Olga Edwardes and Frank Tickle
* ''Party 1860'' – Open Air 1934
* ''Androcles and the Lion'' – Open Air 1934 –
George Bernard Shaw
George Bernard Shaw (26 July 1856 – 2 November 1950), known at his insistence simply as Bernard Shaw, was an Irish playwright, critic, polemicist and political activist. His influence on Western theatre, culture and politics extended from ...
watched it on its first night
* ''Romeo and Juliet'' – Open Air 1934
* ''Young Madame Conti'' – Savoy 1936
* ''Tsar Lenin'' – Westminster Theatre, 1936 – 1937
* ''
Peril at End House
''Peril at End House'' is a work of detective fiction by British writer Agatha Christie, first published in the US by the Dodd, Mead and Company in February 1932 and in the UK by the Collins Crime Club in March of the same year. The US editi ...
'', "Nick" Buckley, opened at Brighton, then Richmond and then moved to Vaudeville but only 38 performances in May 1940
* ''Twelfth Night'' – just two matinees for Twelfth Night holiday, on 30 Dec 1940 and 31 Dec 1940
* ''Landslide'', Marian, Westminster – opened in 5 Oct 1943 until 6 Nov 1943
* ''
Grand National Night
''Grand National Night'' is a 1953 British thriller film brought to the screen by George Minter, produced by Phil C. Samuel, and based on a play of the same title written by Campbell and Dorothy Christie. It was directed by Bob McNaught and s ...
'' – Apollo, 1946 – 1947
TV work
;Before the war:
Edwardes was an early player in the fledgling BBC television service, which started in November 1936 until it closed at the beginning of the War, and didn't restart until 1946.
::(She was also listed as an announcer on 30 March 1939, until her last appearance on 20 August 1939.
;Restarting in 1946:
Years 1956–2008
Since her marriage in 1946, she led a new career, as ''
salonnière
A salon is a gathering of people held by an inspiring host. During the gathering they amuse one another and increase their knowledge through conversation. These gatherings often consciously followed Horace's definition of the aims of poetry, "e ...
'' in the house of Hinton Waldrist manor. Her husband had bought it in 1922, and together they entertained and held court to influential and radical artists, economists, philosophers, and politicians of the day at grand gatherings. Both she and her husband were long-time leading
Fabians
The Fabian Society is a British socialist organisation whose purpose is to advance the principles of social democracy and democratic socialism via gradualist and reformist effort in democracies, rather than by revolutionary overthrow. The Fab ...
– she had known
Harold Laski
Harold Joseph Laski (30 June 1893 – 24 March 1950) was an English political theorist and economist. He was active in politics and served as the chairman of the British Labour Party from 1945 to 1946 and was a professor at the London School of ...
for some time. Nicholas Davenport worked with
Alexander Korda
Sir Alexander Korda (; born Sándor László Kellner; hu, Korda Sándor; 16 September 1893 – 23 January 1956)Harold Wilson with the
National Film Finance Corporation
The National Film Finance Corporation (NFFC) was a film funding agency in the United Kingdom in operation from 1949 until 1985. The NFFC was established by the Cinematograph Film Production (Special Loans) Act 1949, and further enhanced by the ...
. Even though a Fabian, he still kept friend with R. J. G. Boothby and close to
Winston Churchill
Sir Winston Leonard Spencer Churchill (30 November 187424 January 1965) was a British statesman, soldier, and writer who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom twice, from 1940 to 1945 during the Second World War, and again from ...
.
Olga Davenport continued the social activity of salon gathering which had been part of history for more than 350 years. ''"She was, as a young woman, an astounding beauty. She was also an impressive creative force. It is a heady combination. Men chucked caution to the wind."'' There is a bust of ''Olga'' by the sculptor
F. E. McWilliam
Frederick Edward McWilliam (30 April 1909 – 13 May 1992), was a Northern Irish surrealist sculptor. He worked chiefly in stone, wood and bronze.
Biography
McWilliam was born in Banbridge, County Down, Ireland, the son of Dr William McWilliam ...
; two portrait drawings of her in her art collection by Theyre LeeElliott, and another gouache drawing of her dancing also by LeeElliott, with a verse by the artist on the reverse dedicated to her. His was not the only verse inspired by Olga's
muse
In ancient Greek religion and mythology, the Muses ( grc, Μοῦσαι, Moûsai, el, Μούσες, Múses) are the inspirational goddesses of literature, science, and the arts. They were considered the source of the knowledge embodied in the ...
: another was from
A. P. Herbert
Sir Alan Patrick Herbert CH (A. P. Herbert, 24 September 1890 – 11 November 1971), was an English humorist, novelist, playwright, law reformist, and in 1935–1950 an independent Member of Parliament for Oxford University. Born in Ashtead, Su ...
on the train to and back from Frinton-on-Sea.Is he so mad who travels to the shore
Then back at once to where he was before?
Does not the ocean under Olga's sway,
Commit the same sweet folly twice a day?
Thus the mad fish pursue the moon in vain,
But will, as happily, pursue again.
Thus climbers, having made the steep ascent,
Salute the stars, and then return – content
She had been trained in painting, and returned to that art form following her acting career. In fact when she entered into the theatre, between performances she studied at the
Westminster School of Art
The Westminster School of Art was an art school in Westminster, London.
History
The Westminster School of Art was located at 18 Tufton Street, Deans Yard, Westminster, and was part of the old Royal Architectural Museum.
H. M. Bateman described ...
Ivon Hitchens
Ivon Hitchens (born London, 3 March 1893 – 29 August 1979) was an English painter who started exhibiting during the 1920s. He became part of the 'London Group' of artists and exhibited with them during the 1930s. His house was bombed in 1940 du ...
. In 1956, following a career as an actor with mostly minor roles in films, she returned to studying fine art and painting at the
Chelsea Polytechnic
Chelsea College of Arts is a constituent college of the University of the Arts London based in London, United Kingdom, and is a leading British art and design institution with an international reputation.
It offers further and higher educat ...
; at the
Royal College of Art
The Royal College of Art (RCA) is a public research university in London, United Kingdom, with campuses in South Kensington, Battersea and White City. It is the only entirely postgraduate art and design university in the United Kingdom. It o ...
; and at
Peter Lanyon
George Peter Lanyon (8 February 1918 – 31 August 1964) was a British painter of landscapes leaning heavily towards abstraction. Lanyon was one of the most important artists to emerge in post-war Britain. Despite his early death at the ag ...
's school in St Ives, Cornwall. Davenport was not merely an accomplished artist, or a collector; but her deep friendships with British artists from the 1950s onwards placed Davenport as a key and perhaps surprisingly influential figure in the British art scene of the time. In St Ives, Davenport was to meet and befriend some of the greatest British artists of the 20th century and during her life she acquired important paintings for her own collection, including works by
Patrick Heron
Patrick Heron (30 January 1920 – 20 March 1999) was a British abstract and figurative artist, critic, writer, and polemicist, who lived in Zennor, Cornwall.
Heron was recognised as one of the leading painters of his generation. Influenced b ...
,
Roger Hilton
Roger Hilton CBE (1911–1975) was a pioneer of abstract art in post-Second World War Britain. Often associated with the 'middle generation' of St Ives painters – Terry Frost, Patrick Heron, Peter Lanyon & Bryan Wynter – he spent muc ...
,
Terry Frost
Sir Terence Ernest Manitou Frost RA (13 October 1915 – 1 September 2003) was a British abstract artist, who worked in Newlyn, Cornwall. Frost was renowned for his use of the Cornish light, colour and shape to start a new art movement in ...
, and William Scott. She spent hours at Eagle's Nest, and Elm Tree Cottage. She sat on the board of the
Bear Lane
Bear Lane is a short historic street in central Oxford, England. The lane is located just north of Christ Church. It runs between the junction of Blue Boar Street and Alfred Street to the west, and King Edward Street and the north of Oriel Sq ...
Gallery and formed relationships with influential people such as
Clement Greenberg
Clement Greenberg () (January 16, 1909 – May 7, 1994), occasionally writing under the pseudonym K. Hardesh, was an American essayist known mainly as an art critic closely associated with American modern art of the mid-20th century and a formali ...
and
Pauline Vogelpoel
Pauline Vogelpoel MBE (24 April 1926 in Lourenço Marques, Portuguese East Africa – 22 December 2002 in Basle, Switzerland) was a South African arts administrator. She was educated at both Herschel Girls' School and Rustenburg Girls' School i ...
. She had a studio in the south of France.
She exhibited with the
London Group
The London Group is a society based in London, England, created to offer additional exhibiting opportunities to artists besides the Royal Academy of Arts. Formed in 1913, it is one of the oldest artist-led organisations in the world. It was form ...
and with the
Women's International Art Club
The Women's International Art Club, briefly known as the Paris International Art Club, was founded in Paris in 1900. The club was intended to "promote contacts between women artists of all nations and to arrange exhibitions of their work", and ...
. She had shown in a number of group exhibitions including an Arts Council tour, at the
Leicester Galleries
Leicester Galleries was an art gallery located in London from 1902 to 1977 that held exhibitions of modern British, French and international artists' works. Its name was acquired in 1984 by Peter Nahum, who operates "Peter Nahum at the Leiceste ...
, at the
Whitechapel
Whitechapel is a district in East London and the future administrative centre of the London Borough of Tower Hamlets. It is a part of the East End of London, east of Charing Cross. Part of the historic county of Middlesex, the area formed ...
, the , the Drian Gallery, Galerie Creuse, Paris,
Athens School of Fine Arts
The Athens School of Fine Arts (ASFA; el, Ανωτάτη Σχολή Καλών Τεχνών, ΑΣΚΤ, literally: Highest School of Fine Arts), is Greece's premier Art school whose main objective is to develop the artistic talents of its students ...
, Women in the Arts Today at the
Northampton Museum and Art Gallery
Northampton Museum and Art Gallery is a public museum in Northampton, England. The museum is owned and run by West Northamptonshire Council and houses one of the largest collection of shoes in the world, with over 15,000 pairs,Demarco Gallery.
She had two one-person shows at the
Piccadilly Gallery
The Piccadilly Gallery was an art gallery that operated from a number of addresses in London between 1953 and 2007.
It was originally founded as the Pilkington Gallery in 1953 by Eve Pilkington and her husband Godfrey Pilkington, with a focus o ...
in London's
Cork Street
Cork Street is a street in Mayfair in the West End of London, England, with many contemporary art galleries, and was previously associated with the tailoring industry. It is part of the Burlington Estate, which was developed from the 18th centu ...
in 1969, and in 1976;Bridgeman Olga Davenport /ref> and in 1978 she had a solo show of oils at the Oxford Gallery.
Her later work was mainly concerned with the depiction of landscape, and is recognised for the use of gentle, yet dynamic colours which reduce forms to abstracted shapes. She used broad, fluid brushstrokes of colour to capture the outlines of natural environments. The painted landscapes embody a delicate compromise between the wholly self-involved abstraction of modernist formalism and a fascination with the experience and representation of the natural world. Her works are in the permanent collections of the Nuffield Foundation, St Anne's College, Oxford,
University of Warwick
, mottoeng = Mind moves matter
, established =
, type = Public research university
, endowment = £7.0 million (2021)
, budget = £698.2 million (2020 ...
,
Department of the Environment
An environmental ministry is a national or subnational government agency politically responsible for the environment and/or natural resources. Various other names are commonly used to identify such agencies, such as Ministry of the Environment, ...
, and in private collections in England, Switzerland, South Africa, Belgium and the United States of America.
After her death, her art collection auctioned around £550,000 ().