Eton College Chapel II

Valerie Thornton (1931 - 1991)

Etching and aquatint

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© By courtesy of the Thornton Family and the Redfern Gallery, London

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  • About the work
    Location
    Country: Malaysia
    City: Kuala Lumpur
    Place: British High Commission
  • About the artist
    Born in London, Valerie Thornton was evacuated to Canada during the Second World War, before returning in 1944, following which she trained in art at the Byam Shaw School of Drawing and Painting from 1949. In 1954 she undertook an eight-month residency with S. W. Hayter at the Atelier 17 in Paris. On her return to England she purchased her first etching press. After a six-week grand tour of Italy in 1955, she succeeded Howard Hodgkin as Assistant Art Teacher at Charterhouse School, also teaching at the East Anglian School of Painting and Drawing at Benton End, Hadleigh. She did a ten month residency at the Pratt Graphic Art Center Workshop in New York and a trip to Mexico in the early 1960s, where she experimented with woodcuts. In 1965, she became a founder-member of the Printmakers’ Council. Thornton moved to the Minories in Colchester in 1966, after marrying Michael Chase, who had been appointed curator there. She was made a Fellow of the Royal Society of Painter/Etchers and Engravers in 1970. In 1974, she settled in Chelsworth, West Sussex; thereafter followed regular summer working trips to Spain, France and Italy in search of Romanesque material for her etchings.
  • Explore
    Places
    England, Berkshire
    Subjects
    abstract, college, school, chapel
    Materials & Techniques
    etching, aquatint
  • Details
    Artist
    Valerie Thornton (1931 - 1991)
    Title
    Eton College Chapel II
    Edition
    14/50
    Date
    Medium
    Etching and aquatint
    Acquisition
    Purchased from Editions Alecto, July 1964
    Inscription
    below image: 14/50 / Valerie Thornton
    GAC number
    6548