Frances Richards (artist)

Frances Richards
Born	Frances Clayton 1 August 1903 Burslem, England
Died	14 February 1985 (aged 81)
Nationality	British
Education	Burslem School of Art Royal College of Art
Known for	Painting embroidery illustration
Spouse(s)	Ceri Richards

Frances Richards (1903-1985) was a British painter, embroiderer and illustrator.

Life

Frances Clayton was born in 1903 in Burslem, in the Staffordshire Potteries, the daughter of John Clayton, a pottery artist.^[1][2]

She attended Burslem School of Art from 1919 to 1924. She won a scholarship to the Royal College of Art in London, where she studied from 1924 to 1927.^[1]

At the Royal College she met the Welsh artist Ceri Richards. They married in 1929 and had two daughters, Rachel (born 1932) and Rhiannon (born 1945). Rachel married the paleontologist Colin Patterson.^[3]

Richards worked as a teacher at Camberwell School of Art and at Chelsea School of Art.^[4]

She died on 14 February 1985.^[4]

Influences

She worked as a pottery designer at the Paragon China company while a student at Burslem School of Art.^[2][5]:17

At the Royal College of Art she specialised in tempera and fresco painting, studying the writings of the early Italian renaissance painter Cennino Cennini.^[4][5]:17 She continued to paint in tempera after leaving the college.

She admired the early Italian renaissance painters Giotto, Piero della Francesca and Fra Angelico; the British artists Samuel Palmer, William Blake and David Jones; and the poetry of the Psalms, the Song of Solomon, George Herbert and Arthur Rimbaud.^[4][5]:18

Her work appears to have been little influenced by her husband's painting. Mel Gooding writes:^[5]:18

...for over fifty years her own quiet and formalised figurative art was unaffected by her daily closeness to the extravagant and sometimes violent drama of [Ceri] Richards's painting.

Artforms

• Painting, including tempera
• Illustration
• Printmaking
• Embroidered fabric panels (toiles brodées)

Works illustrated

• The Acts of the Apostles (from the Holy Bible). In The Fleuron, A Journal of Typography, vol 7, editor Stanley Morison. Cambridge University Press, 1930; New York, Doubleday Page, 1930. Richards made further illustrations to Acts which were published in 1980.^[4]
• The Book of Revelation (from the Holy Bible), lithographic illustrations. London, Faber and Faber, 1931; New York, Scribner's, 1931. Illustrations commissioned by T. S. Eliot.^[1]
• The Book of Lamentations (from the Holy Bible), 1969^[4]
• Les Illuminations, prose poems by Arthur Rimbaud. Curwen Studio, 1975.^[6]
• Some Poems with Drawings, Skelton's Press / Enitharmon Press, 1983.
• More Poems with Drawings, Skelton's Press / Enitharmon Press, 1984.

Exhibitions

Richards's work was shown in many solo and two-person exhibitions, including:

• 1945 – Redfern Gallery, London^[4]
• 1949 – Toiles brodées by Frances Richards, Redfern Gallery, London^[7][8]
• 1950 – Toiles brodées by Frances Richards, Hannover Gallery, London^[9][10]
• 1954 – Redfern Gallery, London^[4][11]
• 1964 – Tempera Printing by Frances Richards, Leicester Gallery, London^[12]
• 1969 – Leicester Gallery, London^[13]
• 1972 – Ceri Richards Paintings and Drawings, Frances Richards Flower Paintings, Aldeburgh Festival, Snape, Suffolk^[14]
• 1975 – Ceri and Frances Richards Paintings and Drawings, Patrick Searle Gallery, London^[15]
• 1978 – Paintings by Frances Richards (concurrent with Ceri Richards Retrospective Exhibition), Bruton Gallery, Bruton, Somerset^[16]
• 1980 – Frances Richards, paintings, drawings, engravings, lithographs, embroideries, from 1926 to 1979, Campbell and Franks Gallery, London^[17][18]
• 1981 – Frances Richards and Jonathon Gibbs, Holsworthy Gallery, London^[19][20]

Public Collections

Richards' work is in public collections, including:

• Tate^[21][22]
• Victoria and Albert Museum^[2]
• National Museum Cardiff^[23]
• Glynn Vivian Art Gallery, Swansea^[24]

References

1. Chamot, Mary; Farr, Dennis; Butlin, Martin (1964). The Modern British Paintings, Drawings and Sculpture. London: Oldbourne Press / Tate Gallery. Retrieved 25 October 2013.
2. "The Pianist". Victoria and Albert Museum. Retrieved 25 October 2013.
3. Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. Oxford University Press. 2004.
4. "Obituary Frances Richards Painter and illustrator". The Times. 19 February 1985. p. 14. Retrieved 30 October 2013 – via HighBeam. (subscription required (help)).
5. Gooding, Mel (2002). Ceri Richards. Moffat: Cameron & Hollis. ISBN 0-906506-20-4.
6. "Les Illuminations - illustrations to prose poems by Arthur Rimbaud". Tate. Retrieved 25 October 2013.
7. "Classified advertisements: Art Exhibitions". The Times (London). 25 March 1949. p. 8.
8. Review in: Eurich, Richard (26 March 1949). "Redfern Gallery". The Times (London). p. 6.
9. "Classified advertisements". The Observer (London). 17 December 1950. p. 7.
10. Review in: "Shoemaker-painter". The Manchester Guardian. 15 December 1950. p. 3.
11. "Classified advertisements". The Observer (London). 14 November 1954. p. 11.
12. "Classified advertisements". The Observer (London). 23 February 1964. p. 25.
13. Review in: Percival, John (26 September 1969). "Classical Fonteyn". The Times (London). p. 8.
14. "Classified advertisements: Art Exhibitions". The Times (London). 9 June 1972. p. 9.
15. "Classified advertisements: Art Exhibitions". The Times (London). 12 March 1975. p. 13.
16. "Classified advertisements: Art Galleries". The Times (London). 3 June 1978. p. 13.
17. Foster, Alicia (2004). Tate Women Artists. London: Tate Publishing. ISBN 1-85437-311-0.
18. "Court Circular". The Times (London). 2 May 1980. p. 16.
19. "Entertainments Guide". The Times (London). 21 April 1981. p. 21.
20. Review in: Russell Taylor, John (5 May 1981). "Works that live dangerously". The Times (London). p. 7.
21. "Frances Richards". Tate. Retrieved 25 October 2013.
22. "Tate Acquisitions". The Times (London). 12 June 1961. p. 8.
23. "Richards, Frances". National Museum Wales. Retrieved 25 October 2013.
24. "Metamorphosis by Frances Richards". BBC. Retrieved 25 October 2013.

External links

• Richards, Ceri and Frances, manuscripts held at the National Library of Wales
• BBC Your Paintings - Frances Richards Illustrations of works in British public collections