Alison Debenham
Alison Edith Debenham, later Alison Edith Le Plat, (1903-1967) was a British painter and artist.
Alison Debenham | |
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Born | Alison Edith Debenham 1903 |
Died | 1967 (aged 63–64) |
Nationality | British |
Education | Slade School of Art |
Known for | Portrait painting |
Spouse(s) | Rene Le Plat (m. 1930) |
Biography
Debenham was born in 1903 to Lady and Sir Ernest Debenham, of the Debenhams department store family business.[1] After attending a finishing school in Paris, Alison Debenham studied at the Slade School of Art in London from 1923 to 1926.[2] In 1928 she returned to live in Paris before, in 1929, moving to the south of France where she studied with the French painter Simon Bussy.[2] There she met several prominent artists and authors including André Gide and Henri Matisse and, in 1930, married the artist Rene Le Plat.[1]
Throughout her artistic career, Debenham mostly painted portraits of friends and family members but also created a series of portraits of the workers on her father's estate.[1] She regularly exhibited in both London and Paris and her first solo exhibition was at the Galerie Vignon in Paris in 1932.[2] During 1935 she had a solo show at the Zwemmer Gallery in London and for a time she was associated with the Euston Road School of artists.[1] A memorial exhibition for Debenham was held at the Richmond Hill Gallery in 1968 and a further retrospective was mounted by the Belgrave Gallery in London in 1976.[1][2]
References
- David Buckman (2006). Artists in Britain Since 1945 Vol 1, A to L. Art Dictionaries Ltd. ISBN 0 953260 95 X.
- Frances Spalding (1990). 20th Century Painters and Sculptors. Antique Collectors' Club. ISBN 1 85149 106 6.
Further reading
- Alison Debenham, introduction by Claude Rogers, The Belgrave Gallery, London, 1976.