Ursula Wood (1868-1925), was a British artist and illustrator who had a long and distinguished career and is now best known for her depictions of the work of the

Women's Land Army The Women's Land Army (WLA) was a British civilian organisation created in 1917 by the Board of Agriculture during the First World War to bring women into work in agriculture, replacing men called up to the military. Women who worked for the W ...

during World War One.

Biography

The daughter of a barrister, Wood grew up in North London with two older sisters and a twin sister. Her sister Catherine became a painter, exhibited regularly at the Royal Academy between 1884 and 1922, and married fellow painter Richard Henry Wright.{{ Ursula and her twin sister, Mary, were lifelong friends of the educator and writer

Mary Vivian Hughes Mary Vivian Hughes (2 October 1866 – May 1956), usually known as Molly Hughes and published under M. V. Hughes, was a British educator and author.'Miss M. Hughes: Pioneer women teacher', ''The Times'', 5 June 1956 Life The daughter of a London ...

. Hughes' memoir ''A London Girl of the 1880s'' includes brief sketches of Ursula Wood as a teenager, and Wood illustrated Hughes' first book, ''The King of Kings'' (1903). Wood trained at the

St John's Wood Art School The St John's Wood Art School ( The Wood or Calderon's Art School) was an art school in St John's Wood, north London, England. The Art School was established in 1878 and was located on Elm Tree Road. It was founded by two art teachers, Elíseo Ab ...

and at the

Royal Academy schools The Royal Academy of Arts (RA) is an art institution based in Burlington House on Piccadilly in London. Founded in 1768, it has a unique position as an independent, privately funded institution led by eminent artists and architects. Its purpo ...

where, in 1889, she won the Turner Gold medal and a £50 scholarship for one of her landscape paintings.{{cite book, author=Gill Clarke, publisher=Sansom & Company, year=2008, title=The Women's Land Army A Portrait , isbn=978-1-904537-87-8 Wood exhibited with the Society of Lady Artists in 1895 and received a favourable mention in ''

The Times ''The Times'' is a British daily national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its current name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its sister paper ''The Sunday Times'' (fou ...

''. As well as working in oils and with woodcuts, Wood also illustrated books, including at least one by E. Boyd Bayley, produced lithographs and decorated furniture. She engraved a series of views of Venice.{{cite book, publisher=Editions Grund, Paris, year=2006, title=Benezit Dictionary of Artists Volume 14 Valverde-Zyw, isbn=2-7000-3084-2 She established a successful commercial studio in London with a Miss E Stewart Wood as a partner. At the start of the First World War, Wood closed down her business and volunteered to join the Women's Forestry Corps, one of the three divisions of the Women's Land Army.{{cite book, author=Catherine Speck, publisher=Reaktion Books, year=2014, title=Beyond the Battlefield, Women Artists of Two World Wars, isbn=978-178023-374-1 While working at a forestry camp in Wendover, Wood continued to paint and in January 1919 she contacted the Women's Work Committee of the

Imperial War Museum Imperial War Museums (IWM) is a British national museum organisation with branches at five locations in England, three of which are in London. Founded as the Imperial War Museum in 1917, the museum was intended to record the civil and military ...

. The Women's Work Committee had begun to collect artworks showing women's contribution to the war effort and so Wood offered them some of her sketches from Wendover. After much haggling over fees the Committee paid Wood 15 guineas for five sketches.{{cite web , author=Imperial War Museum, url=http://www.iwm.org.uk/collections/search?f%5B0%5D=makerString%3AWood%2C%20Ursula&query= , title=Search our collection:Ursula Wood , access-date=22 September 2015, work=

Wood exhibited at the Royal Academy between 1890 and 1922, at the

Society of Women Artists The Society of Women Artists (SWA) is a British art body dedicated to celebrating and promoting fine art created by women. It was founded as the Society of Female Artists (SFA) in about 1855, offering women artists the opportunity to exhibit and ...

from 1892 to 1904 and at the Royal Scottish Academy in 1900 and at the

Royal Glasgow Institute of the Fine Arts The Royal Glasgow Institute of the Fine Arts (RGI) is an independent organisation in Glasgow, founded in 1861, which promotes contemporary art and artists in Scotland. The institute organizes the largest and most prestigious annual art exhibitio ...

in 1921.

References

{{Reflist

External links

* {{Art UK bio {{Authority control {{DEFAULTSORT:Wood, Ursula 1868 births 1925 deaths 19th-century English painters 19th-century English women artists 20th-century English painters 20th-century English women artists Alumni of St John's Wood Art School Alumni of the Royal Academy Schools British women in World War I English women painters Sibling artists World War I artists