Hester Sainsbury

Hester Margaret Sainsbury (1890-1967)[1] was a British artist, dancer, poet and illustrator.

Life and work

Hester Sainsbury's parents were Harrington Sainsbury (1853-1936), court physician to Queen Victoria,[2] and Maria Tuke (1861–1947).[3] They married in Marylebone parish church, London on 26 March 1889; Hester was born in the spring of 1890."[4] She grew up among artists such as Roger Fry, Gwen Raverat and the Omega Workshop Group. Her brother Phillip was one of the founders of the Favil Press, for which she illustrated several books.[2]

She was trained in modern dance by Margaret Morris. Around 1914-1915, she ran a group "formed to speak and act her amazingly vital rhythmic verse-plays", influencing the development of artistic drama in Britain, and inspiring people such as the artist Maxwell Armfield.[5] Her group was known before the war as the Clarissa Club, which she and another dancer, Kathleen Dillon founded and ran at 71 Royal Hospital Road, Chelsea. By 1914 its name had changed to the Choric School.[6] The whole of the October 1915 issue of Others magazine was devoted to "The Choric School", with contributions by Sainsbury and the poets Ezra Pound, Kathleen Dillon and John Rodker.[7][8]

Sainsbury became a successful artist and print-maker in the 1920s, being known among other things for using an engraving tool that cut multiple parallel lines rather than the usual one. She made fine art prints and illustrations by engraving both copper and wood. The author Philip Neil describes her engravings as "fresh, supple, and irresistibly charming."[4]

She lived the Bohemian life of an artist; her lover was the Japanese playwright Kori Torahiko between 1917 and 1926, when he died.[4] She married the Vorticist painter Frederick Etchells on 13 May 1932;[9] she illustrated a number of books for his company, Haslewood Books.[2] She and Etchells moved away from London's artistic scene to France House, East Hagbourne, Oxfordshire, which he personally restored,[9] and her artistic career largely came to an end, though she illustrated an edition of Torahiko Kori's works, published in Tokyo in 1936.[4][10] John Betjeman was one of their neighbours.[9]

Works

Books

Books illustrated

The cover of the first edition of Henry Williamson's Tarka the Otter featured one of her wood engravings.[11]

In museums and galleries

References

  1. ↑ "Hester Sainsbury". Retrieved 6 December 2014.
  2. 1 2 3 4 "Hester Sainsbury (Biographical details)". The British Museum. Retrieved 6 December 2014.
  3. ↑ "The Stitch Lives of Others". Rosalind Wyatt. Retrieved 6 December 2014.
  4. 1 2 3 4 Philip, Neil. "Oriental delights". Adventures in the Print Trade. Retrieved 6 December 2014.
  5. ↑ Nahum, Peter. "Dancing Girl, a drawing for The Green Leaf Players Maxwell Ashby Armfield". Leicester Galleries. Retrieved 6 December 2014.
  6. ↑ Butts, Mary (2008). Blondel, Nathalie, ed. The Journals of Mary Butts. Yale University Press.
  7. ↑ "(Issue named) The Choric School". Others Magazine. 1 (4). October 1915.
  8. ↑ Churchill, Suzanne Wintsch (2006). The Little Magazine Others and the Renovation of Modern American Poetry. Ashgate Publishing. pp. 224–225. ISBN 978-0-7546-5332-5.
  9. 1 2 3 "Etchells, Frederick". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. Retrieved 6 December 2014.
  10. ↑ Bliss, Douglas Percy (1934). Print Collector's Quarterly. Hester Sainsbury, once so clever with the multiple-tool, has disappeared. Missing or empty |title= (help)
  11. ↑ "Williamson (Henry). Tarka the Otter". Bonhams. Retrieved 6 December 2014.

Further reading

External links


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