Rosemary Elizabeth Allan (1911-2008) was a British painter.

Biography

Allan was born in

Bromley Bromley is a large town in Greater London, England, within the London Borough of Bromley. It is south-east of Charing Cross, and had an estimated population of 87,889 as of 2011. Originally part of Kent, Bromley became a market town, c ...

Kent Kent is a county in South East England and one of the home counties. It borders Greater London to the north-west, Surrey to the west and East Sussex to the south-west, and Essex to the north across the estuary of the River Thames; it faces ...

and attended the

Central School of Arts and Crafts The Central School of Art and Design was a public art school, school of fine arts, fine and applied arts in London, England. It offered foundation and degree level courses. It was established in 1896 by the London County Council as the Central ...

in 1928. She became a student at the

Slade School of Fine 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 1930 and would spend five years there. At the Slade she was taught by

Randolph Schwabe Randolph Schwabe (9 May 1885 – 19 September 1948) was a British draughtsman, painter and etcher who was the Slade Professor of Fine Art at University College London from 1930 until his death. He served as a war artist in both World Wars, crea ...

and was awarded a scholarship in 1932. During a long career Allan showed works at the Royal Academy and with both the

New English Art Club The New English Art Club (NEAC) was founded in London in 1885 as an alternative venue to the Royal Academy. It continues to hold an annual exhibition of paintings and drawings at the Mall Galleries in London, exhibiting works by both members and a ...

and 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 ...

. She had exhibitions at several commercial galleries including 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 ...

, the Redfern Galleries and with the

Wildenstein Wildenstein is a commune in the Haut-Rhin department in Grand Est in north-eastern France. Population See also * Communes of the Haut-Rhin department The following is a list of the 366 communes of the French department of Haut-Rhin. The ...

group. During World War Two, Allan worked for the

Women's Voluntary Service The Royal Voluntary Service (known as the Women's Voluntary Services (WVS) from 1938 to 1966; Women's Royal Voluntary Service (WRVS) from 1966 to 2004 and WRVS from 2004 to 2013) is a voluntary organisation concerned with helping people in need ...

, WVS, in

Fairford Fairford is a town in Gloucestershire, England. The town lies in the Cotswold hills on the River Coln, east of Cirencester, west of Lechlade and north of Swindon. Nearby are RAF Fairford and the Cotswold Water Park. History Evidence of ...

, Gloucestershire, on evacuee settlement duties. Before the War ended, she completed a number of short-term commissions for the

War Artists' Advisory Committee The War Artists Advisory Committee (WAAC), was a British government agency established within the Ministry of Information at the outbreak of the Second World War in 1939 and headed by Sir Kenneth Clark. Its aim was to compile a comprehensive artist ...

on the work of the WVS and the resulting watercolours are now held by the Imperial War Museum in London. A solo exhibition of her work was held at the Upper Grosvenor Galleries in 1971.

Personal life

Allan lived in Eastleach,

Gloucestershire Gloucestershire ( abbreviated Glos) is a county in South West England. The county comprises part of the Cotswold Hills, part of the flat fertile valley of the River Severn and the entire Forest of Dean. The county town is the city of Gl ...

Modern British Artists' Biographies , www.LLFA.uk
Retrieved 2018-01-18. and was married to the artist Allan Gwynne-Jones, their daughter, Emily Gwynne-Jones, also became an artist. An exhibition of works by the Gwynne-Jones family was held in 1997.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Allan, Rosemary 1911 births 2008 deaths 20th-century English painters 20th-century English women artists Alumni of the Central School of Art and Design Alumni of the Slade School of Fine Art Artists from Kent British war artists English women painters People from Bromley People from Eastleach World War II artists