Pegaret Anthony

Pegaret Anthony
Born Pegaret Keeling
1 November 1915
Totnes, Devon, England
Died 25 May 2000
Nationality British
Known for watercolourist
Spouse(s) John Victor Caldecott Anthony

Pegaret Anthony (1 November 1915 – 25 May 2000) was an English artist and lecturer in historical costume and theatre history best known for her watercolour paintings of war workers during the Second World War.

Early years

Pegaret Keeling was born on 1 November 1915 in Totnes, Devon, the daughter of Jessie (née Howes) and Guy William Keeling. Her maternal grandfather was the Victoran artist Thomas Howes. She was educated at The King Alfred School in Hampstead, and King's College of Household and Social Science at the University of London.[1] As an 18-year-old student she travelled alone to Montreal in Canada, arriving back in London on 26 August 1934. From 1934 to 1938 she was a student at the Central School of Art and Design, where she studied under Jeanetta Cochrane, a theatre practitioner specialising in costume and scenery design.[2] In her final year here she was a holder of the William Atkinson Scholarship for theatre design.[1]

Career

'Women at Work' (c.1943), an example of Anthony's watercolour paintings of war workers during World War II

From Jeanettea Cochrane she developed a passion for the history of costume, which strongly influenced her work. During the 1930s she was heavily involved in costume, theatre and fashion-related activities, which included a fashion show at Grosvenor House in 1937, the dresses from which were subsequently used in early television broadcasts from Alexandra Palace. She was in charge of the décor and scene painting for a production of George Bernard Shaw's Saint Joan in 1938, and was the chief designer for the Birmingham Centenary Pageant in 1938, which had 5000 performers. Also in 1938 she painted the scenery for a production of The Scarlet Pimpernel at the Embassy Theatre, and was wardrobe mistress for the pantomime Babes in the Wood at the Unity Theatre in 1939.[1]

Anthony returned to the Central School of Art and Design in 1944 as a lecturer in Historical Costume for Theatre Design, and remained there for almost forty years. Her students were regularly taken to the Victoria and Albert Museum and the British Museum where they were able to study the costume collections.[2] Anthony worked in various media including watercolours, oils and pencil. Following her work at the Central School she lectured at the Motley School of Theatre Design for a further 20 years.[1]

She was also a caricature artist, but is most noted for her wartime pictures during the Second World War when she painted watercolours of men and women engaged in war work, submitting some of her work to the War Artists' Advisory Committee. Two of her watercolour paintings from 1943 are in the collection of the Imperial War Museum.[2][3] In the 1960s she worked for the American film producer Samuel Bronston to research historical costumes for several feature films, including 55 Days at Peking (1963), and The Fall of the Roman Empire (1964).[1]

During her long career Anthony collected a huge archive of source material on historical costume. Some of this was published in 1974 as Costume: A General Bibliography, a book she wrote with Janet Arnold.

In 1944 she married John Victor Caldecott Anthony (1912–2001), a valuer with the Inland Revenue and a great-nephew of the artist Randolph Caldecott. They had a son, Keeling Anthony (1946-2006).[4] Pegaret Anthony died on 25 May 2000 aged 94, and was cremated at Golders Green Crematorium on 30 May 2000.

Legacy

After her death an extensive collection of her work was purchased for the CSM Museum Collection at the University of the Arts London.[2] In 2002 the Imperial War Museum purchased fourteen works, mostly depicting uniform production in wartime clothing factories, by Anthony.[5]

Publications

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 Buckman, David Artists in Britain Since 1945 Art Dictionaries Ltd (2006) pgs 50-51
  2. 1 2 3 4 Anthony's Profile on The Central Saint Martins Museum and Study Collection website
  3. ↑ Anthony on the Imperial War Museum website
  4. ↑ Pegaret Anthony Genealogy
  5. ↑ Kathleen Palmer (2011). Women War Artists. Tate Publishing/ Imperial War Museum. ISBN 978-1-85437-989-4.
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