Helen Saunders

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Abstract Multicoloured Design, 1915, Tate Gallery.

Helen Saunders (4 April 1885, London^[1] – 1 January 1963, Holborn), was an English painter.

Saunders studied at the Slade School of Art from 1906 to 1907, and later at the Central School of Art & Design. She exhibited in the Twentieth Century Art exhibition at the Whitechapel Gallery in 1914, one of the first British artists to point in a nonfigurative style. In 1915 she became associated with the Vorticists, signing their manifesto in the first edition of BLAST magazine, and contributing to their inaugural exhibition. She and Jessica Dismorr were the only female members.

She exhibited with the London Group in 1916, but from 1920 she increasingly turned away from the avant-garde and adopted a more realist style, working in still life, landscapes and portraiture, and latterly exhibiting with the Holborn Art Society.

She died of accidental gas poisoning at her home in Holborn, London on January 1, 1963. Later that year, her sister Ethel donated to the Tate Gallery three of her drawings from her vorticist period.

Her 1996 biography by Brigid Peppin ^[2] includes a foreword by Richard Cork who states that:

"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."

Peppin discovered a great deal of previously unknown information about Saunders' life and work. Despite her long career, however, less than 200 of her works are currently known.

[edit] References

Richard Cork, "Vorticists (act. 1914–1919)", Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004 accessed 2 July 2007
Helen Saunders, Tate Gallery biography

^ Bedford Park - sources are inconsistent whether this is Chiswick or Croydon
^ Helen Saunders, 1885-1963, Brigid Peppin, Ashmolean Museum, 1996, ISBN 185444087X