Studio RT Ltd

Description

We are offering this lovely Pastel Portrait of a young girl by the artist Valerie MacKenzie, who has signed the painting VM below the figure and dated it 1963. The portrait is of a young girl with a very pretty face, her blonde hair cut with a fringe and the remainder pulled up into a bun on the top of her head, tied with a black ribbon with the ends trailing down her back. She looks as though she might just be off to her ballet class. The style and ethos of the pastel are so redolent of the 1960s.

On the back of the old backing board, was the card of the artist, giving her address as the Ashdene Gallery, Langton Green, Kent and giving her prices for portraits - from 50 guineas for oil and pastels from 25 guineas. According to her daughter Mary Ann, who studied at St. Martins and Central Schools of Art, and runs courses in Devon, her mother was an artist her whole life.

She was born in 1917 and died in 1977. We have luckily been able to contact her daughter, who has very kindly supplied some biographical information about her mother. After a serious illness in the early 1930s, and having missed a great deal of schooling,Valerie went to the Glasgow School of Art, where she was trained by Hugh Crawford.

Not only was she a very accomplished portrait painter and had portraits accepted by The Portrait Society, but exhibited landscapes in oils at the Royal Academy Summer Exhibition. For about 15 years, she was the top seller of paintings in the Art Department of Libertys of London

The pastel has been newly double mounted in two-tone acid free mountboard to complement and is newly framed in a 2" silver gilt frame to suit. It will be supplied wired and ready to hang.

Image size: 15 1/2" x 11 3/8" - 39.35cm x 28.9cm

Frame size: 24 1/2" x 20 3/8" - 62.2cm x 51.75cm

Medium: Pastels on card

Condition : Very good. The mounts and frame are new