Dorothea Braby
{{Short description|British artist}}
{{Use British English|date=January 2018}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=January 2018}}
{{Infobox artist
| name = Dorothea Braby
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| birth_date = 17 October 1909
| birth_place = London
| death_date = {{Death year and age|1987|1909}}
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| nationality = British
| education = {{ubl|Central School of Arts and Crafts|Heatherley School of Fine Art}}
| field = Design, illustration
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Dorothea Braby (17 October 1909 – 1987) was a British artist. Although she had a long career as a freelance designer producing work for several well-known companies, Braby is best known for the book illustrations she created, particularly those for the Golden Cockerel Press.
Early life
Braby was born in Wandsworth"BRABY Dorothea" in Register of Births for Wandsworth RD, vol. 1d (1909), p. 733 and grew up in Putney, the third child of Percy Braby, a solicitor, and Maud Churton Braby, a journalist and author who had been born in China.1911 United Kingdom census for 3, Hazlewell Road, Putney, London S.W. Braby was educated at the St Felix School in Southwold, and then from 1926 to 1930 at the Central School of Arts and Crafts in London.{{cite book|author=David Buckman|publisher=Art Dictionaries Ltd|year=1998|title=Artists in Britain Since 1945 Vol 1, A to L |isbn=0-95326-095-X}} For a time she was enrolled at the Heatherley School of Fine Art and also studied art in Paris and Florence.{{cite book|author=Frances Spalding|publisher=Antique Collectors' Club|year=1990|title=20th Century Painters and Sculptors |isbn=1-85149-106-6}}{{cite book|author=Grant M. Waters|publisher=Eastbourne Fine Art|year=1975|title=Dictionary of British Artists Working 1900-1950}}
Career
Braby's work was mostly as an illustrator of books, including several volumes produced by the Golden Cockerel Press. She spent eighteen months working on their 1948 edition of the Mabinogion.{{cite book|author=Alan Horne|publisher=Antique Collectors' Club|year=1994|title=The Dictionary of 20th Century British Book Illustrators |isbn=1-85149-1082}} For The Saga of Llywarch the Old, Braby created colour engravings that resembled mediaeval ivory tablets. Among the other books she illustrated were a 1950 edition of John Keats' Poems and a 1954 edition of Oscar Wilde's Lord Arthur Savile's Crime. Her own volume, The Way of Wood Engraving was published in 1953. Braby exhibited widely, both in Britain and overseas. The Society of Women Artists, the Hampstead Artists' Council, and the Arts Council of Great Britain all showed works by Braby.
During her design career, Braby also produced work for The Radio Times, The Studio, and ICI.
In 1959, she gave up working as an artist for a full-time career as a social worker.{{cite book|author=Robin Garton|publisher=Garton & Co / Scolar Press|year=1992|title=British Printmakers 1855-1955 A Century of Printmaking from the Etching Revival to St Ives |isbn=0-85967-968-3}} A memorial exhibition was held at Burgh House, Hampstead, in 1988.
Selected works
Books illustrated by Braby included
- Mr Chambers and Perephone by C.Whitfield, Golden Cockerel Press, 1937
- The Ninety-First Psalm by C.Whitfield, Golden Cockerel Press, 1944
- The Lottery Ticket by V.G.Calderon, Golden Cockerel Press, 1945
- The Mabinogion by V.G.Calderon, Golden Cockerel Press, 1948
- Gilgamesh, King of Erech by F.L. Lucas, Golden Cockerel Press, 1948
- Poems by John Keats, Folio Society, 1950
- Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, Golden Cockerel Press, 1952
- The Fearless Treasure by Noel Streatfeild, Joseph, 1953
- Lord Arthur Savile's Crime by Oscar Wilde, Folio Society, 1954
- The Semi-Attached Couple by Emily Eden, Folio Society, 1954
- The Saga of Llywarch the Old by Glyn Jones, Golden Cockerel Press, 1955
Braby also wrote and illustrated The Commandments, published by Lewis in 1946, and The Way of Wood Engraving, published in 1953.
References
{{Reflist}}
External links
- {{Art UK bio}}
- [https://collections.vam.ac.uk/search/?listing_type=&offset=0&limit=15&narrow=&extrasearch=&q=Dorothea+Braby&commit=Search&quality=0&objectnamesearch=&placesearch=&after=&before=&namesearch=&materialsearch=&mnsearch=&locationsearch= Illustrations by Braby in the Victoria & Albert Museum]
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Category:20th-century British painters
Category:20th-century English women artists
Category:20th-century British engravers
Category:Alumni of the Central School of Art and Design
Category:Alumni of the Heatherley School of Fine Art
Category:Artists from the London Borough of Wandsworth
Category:English wood engravers
Category:People educated at Saint Felix School