 © The estate of Helen Saunders |
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1885–1963
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Helen Saunders, 1885-1963 Brigid Peppin Ashmolean Museum “Since Saunders’ early work earned her a respected place in experimental circles, the gathering obscurity of her later years seems cruel. She endured the neglect with uncomplaining stoicism, for her innate warmth prevented her from succumbing to bitterness. All the same, I am delighted that her entire career is now receiving the attention it deserves. Peppin should be congratulated on her success in discovering a great deal of fascinating information about Saunders’ life and work, as well as sharing in an exhibition which does her justice at last.” — Taken from the Foreword by Richard Cork. |
| This exhibit catalogue is currently difficult to find, but it’s worth trying to track it down if you’re a fan of Helen Saunders. As a family member, Brigid Peppin has access to personal, family information about Saunders. As an artist herself, Peppin is a knowledgable and sympathetic curator of Saunders’ works. |
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| from The Oxford Dictionary of National Biography: Helen Beatrice Saunders (1885–1963) was born on 4 April 1885 at 10 Addison Road, Bedford Park, Chiswick, London, the daughter of Alfred Robert Henry Saunders, a solicitor, and his wife, Annie, née Daley. After being educated at home, Saunders studied at the Central School of Arts and Crafts and at the Slade School of Fine Art (1906–7), and exhibited with the Friday Club in 1912. By then her interest in post-impressionism was evident, and she showed her work at the Allied Artists’ Association in 1912 and 1913. One of the first in Britain to work in a non-figurative style, Saunders reached her most extreme stage as a painter in 1914 when she exhibited at the Whitechapel Art Gallery’s ‘Twentieth Century Art’ exhibition and joined the Rebel Art Centre. Like Dismorr, she contributed a poem as well as an illustration to the second issue of Blast, and was included in the vorticist exhibitions in London and New York. But she came closest to Lewis when together they painted murals in the Vorticist Room at the Restaurant de la Tour Eiffel, Percy Street, London. At the end of her life Saunders was living at 39 Gray’s Inn Road, Holborn, London. Following her accidental death by gas poisoning on new year’s day, 1963, three of her works—Monochrome Abstract Composition (c.1915), Abstract Composition in Blue and Yellow (c.1915), and Abstract Multicoloured (c.1915)—were that year presented to the Tate Gallery in memory of her sister by Ethel M. Saunders. |
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 __________ © The estate of Helen Saunders Abstract Composition in Blue and Yellow, c.1915, Pencil, chalk, wash and collage within irregularly shaped pencil frame, approx 10 7/8×6 3/4 (27·5×17) Collection Tate, Presented by Miss Ethel M.Saunders in memory of her sister 1963. via The Tate Museum |
 _________ © The estate of Helen Saunders Abstract
Multicoloured Design, c.1915 Medium Gouache, watercolour, and graphite on paper. Dimensions Support: 359 x 257 mm Collection Tate, Presented by Miss Ethel M. Saunders in memory of her sister 1963. via The Tate Museum |
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Left: A drawing of Helen Saunders by Wyndham Lewis from: Helen Saunders: A Little Gallery via the blog of artist Richard A Warren richardawarren.wordpress.com contains many other images of Saunders’ paintings. ________________________ For a list of a few other art historical references and video lectures on women artists and modernism including the Vorticists, see our refernce page: http://www.flashpointmag.com/women_vorticists.htm |
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Female Figures Imprisoned © The estate of Helen Saunders ____________ c. 1913 ink & watercolor on paper 15.6 x 18.6 cm listed in: Helen Saunders, 1885-1963 by Brigid Peppin Ashmolean Museum |
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The estate of Helen Saunder __________ gouache listed
in: Helen Saunders, 1885-1963 by Brigid Peppin Ashmolean Museum
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Below: Helen Saunders poem
A Vision of Mud
from BLAST
2 via the Modernist
Journals Project
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Click through the image left to go to TateShots: Biddy Peppin on the Female Vorticists Art historian
Brigid Peppin talks about her relative, the female Vorticist Helen Saunders as well as her little-known colleagues Jessica Dismorr and Dorothy Shakespear. |
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Images © Estate of Helen Saunders
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A wonderful internet resource for Helen Saunders is: Helen Saunders: A Little Gallery on the blog of artist Richard A Warren richardawarren.wordpress.com contains, images, texts and items of interest on other vorticists and artists of the time |
| Saunders friend Katie Gliddon and her teacher Rosa Waugh were both imprisoned for the suffrage cause. Below is a group portrait that depicts Rosa Waugh.  Portrait depicts: Rosa Waugh, Winifred John, Michael Salaman, Augustus John and Gwen John. Portrait Group (Recto) Studies after Michelangelo (Verso) by Gwen John, 1897–1898 Watercolour & pencil Dimensions: 28 x 38 cm www.artfund.com
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