Wendela Boreel (1895–1985) was a British artist noted for her

gouache Gouache (; ), body color, or opaque watercolor is a water-medium paint consisting of natural pigment, water, a binding agent (usually gum arabic or dextrin), and sometimes additional inert material. Gouache is designed to be opaque. Gouache h ...

painting method and intaglio works. She was a student of

Walter Sickert Walter Richard Sickert (31 May 1860 – 22 January 1942) was a German-born British painter and printmaker who was a member of the Camden Town Group of Post-Impressionist artists in early 20th-century London. He was an important influence on d ...

Training and early career

The daughter of a Dutch diplomat, Jonkheer Boreel, and an American mother, Edith Margaret (née Ives), Boreel grew up in England and attended 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 ...

. Boreel's first interest at Slade was in drawing. She began attending evening classes at the

Westminster Technical Institute 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 describe ...

where she was discovered by Sickert. He gave her access to a studio in Mornington Crescent where she began painting. Boreel's first solo exhibit was in 1919 at Walker's Gallery. She also held shows at 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 as part of Frank Rutter’s Allied Artists’ Association 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 ...

. However, her earliest successes were in etching and she was elected to the Royal Society of Etchers in 1923.

Tite street

Boreel and her parents lived on

Tite Street Tite Street is a street in Chelsea, London, England, within the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea, just north of the River Thames. It was laid out from 1877 by the Metropolitan Board of Works, giving access to the Chelsea Embankment. Hist ...

and she became friends with Frank Schuster and met

John Singer Sargent John Singer Sargent (; January 12, 1856 – April 14, 1925) was an American expatriate artist, considered the "leading portrait painter of his generation" for his evocations of Edwardian-era luxury. He created roughly 900 oil paintings and more ...

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Siegfried Sassoon Siegfried Loraine Sassoon (8 September 1886 – 1 September 1967) was an English war poet, writer, and soldier. Decorated for bravery on the Western Front, he became one of the leading poets of the First World War. His poetry both describ ...

W. B. Yeats William Butler Yeats (13 June 186528 January 1939) was an Irish poet, dramatist, writer and one of the foremost figures of 20th-century literature. He was a driving force behind the Irish Literary Revival and became a pillar of the Irish liter ...

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and Martin Hardie.

"The hut"

In 1919 Frank Schuster introduced Boreel to Leslie George Wylde (nicknamed Anzy), a cavalary officer who had lost a leg during the Gallipoli Campaign. Boreel and Wylde married and Schuster invited them to live in "the Hut", his country estate in

Bray, Berkshire Bray, occasionally Bray on Thames, is a large suburban village and civil parish in the English county of Berkshire. It sits on the banks of the River Thames, to the southeast of Maidenhead of which it is a suburb. The village is mentioned in th ...

. Siegfried Sasson described Boreel as "delightful" and said she was "the only serious element" at Bray. Boreel's etching of Sassoon is held at the

Art Gallery of New South Wales The Art Gallery of New South Wales (AGNSW), founded as the New South Wales Academy of Art in 1872 and known as the National Art Gallery of New South Wales between 1883 and 1958, is located in The Domain, Sydney, Australia. It is the most importa ...

. When Schuster died in 1927 he left the estate to Wylde and Boreel.

Later years

Wylde died in 1935 and Boreel moved to France. She escaped to the United States with her son at the onset of World War Two. She returned to France after the war.

References

External links

Landscape in Nude
by Wendela Boreel {{DEFAULTSORT:Boreel, Wendela 1895 births 1985 deaths Alumni of the Slade School of Fine Art Alumni of the Westminster School of Art American women printmakers 20th-century American women artists British expatriates in France British emigrants to the United States