Ruth Isabelle Collet née Salaman (1909 – 2001) was a British painter, printmaker and illustrator.

Biography

Collet was born in

Barley Barley (''Hordeum vulgare''), a member of the grass family, is a major cereal grain grown in temperate climates globally. It was one of the first cultivated grains, particularly in Eurasia as early as 10,000 years ago. Globally 70% of barley p ...

in Hertfordshire into a talented family of artists and scientists. Her father was the botanist Redcliffe N. Salaman and her mother was the Hebrew scholar Nina Ruth Davis. After

Bedales School Bedales School is a co-educational, boarding and day independent school in the village of Steep, near the market town of Petersfield in Hampshire, England. It was founded in 1893 by John Haden Badley in reaction to the limitations of conven ...

Collet 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 1927 to 1930 and then trained in etching with S W Hayter in Paris between 1932 and 1935. She returned to London where she studied with Marian Kratochwil and

Kathleen Browne Kathleen Anne Browne (1 October 1876 – 9 October 1943) was an Irish politician, farmer, writer, historian and archaeologist. She was arrested after the Easter Rising and held in Kilmainham Gaol. During the Civil War, she was Pro-Treaty and ...

and was associated for a time with the

East London Group The East London Group were a group of artists based in London. They worked and showed together from 1928 to 1936. They were mostly working class, realist painters whose formal education had often stopped at elementary school. The group developed f ...

. Collet exhibited at the Royal Academy, with 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 ...

and 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 ...

. Works by her were shown 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 ...

and at Gainsborough's House in Sudbury while she had a solo exhibition at the Annexe Gallery in London during 1982. Other solo shows were held at the Sue Rankin Gallery in 1987, at the Sternberg Centre for Judaism and at the Moss Gallery in 1991. The

Ben Uri Gallery The Ben Uri Gallery & Museum is a registered museum and charity based at 108a Boundary Road, off Abbey Road in St John's Wood, London, England. It features the work and lives of émigré artists in London, and describes itself as "The Art Museum ...

acquired a number of works by Collet in 1987. Colet used her etching and printmaking skills to produce a large number of illustrations for the

Westminster Synagogue The Westminster Synagogue is a non-affiliated Jewish Reform synagogue and congregation near Hyde Park, London. It is located in Kent House, a restored Victorian town house in Knightsbridge. The building, which dates from the late 1800s, also ...

in central London and also to illustrate a number of dust jackets for books. She was married to the musician and music historian Robert Collet and for many years the couple lived at Northwood near London. A memorial exhibition of her work was held in 2003 at the Broughton House Gallery in Cambridge.

References

External links

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Works by Collet in the Ben Uri collection
{{DEFAULTSORT:Collet, Ruth 1909 births 2001 deaths 20th-century English painters 20th-century English women artists Alumni of the Slade School of Fine Art English Jews English women painters Jewish painters Jewish women painters People educated at Bedales School People from Hertfordshire Ruth Collet

Biography

References

Further reading

External links