Gypsy
Trekkie Margery Tulip Ritchie Parsons (Province of KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa 1902 - Lewes 1995)
Category
Art / Prints
Date
c. 1945
Materials
Lithograph on paper
Measurements
250 x 325 mm
Collection
Monk's House, Rodmell, East Sussex
NT 768773
Summary
Lithograph, 'Gypsy', by Trekkie Ritchie Parsons, (1902-1995), ‘Gypsy’, c. 1945, signed TR. A portrait of a woman in a striped dress seated on an armchair.
Full description
This lithograph by the painter, printmaker and book illustrator Trekkie Parsons (1902-1995), shows a female sitter named ‘Gypsy’ and identified as a friend of the artist (as a label on the back of the framed print explains). However, the exact identity of ‘Gypsy’ is not clear. Further, Trekkie’s treatment of the sitter’s features is schematic. Rather than being a ‘true’ portrait of an individual, the artist has focused on the rounded forms of the upholstered armchair in which ‘Gypsy’ sits and on the flowing, full length stripped dress which she wears. Trekkie Parsons first trained at The Slade School of Art where she showed a talent for drawing in particular. Her first paid work was for illustrating various publications and in 1935 she published an anthology with Chatto and Windus entitled English Drawings. This small-scale lithograph has much in common with both her drawing technique and with her paid work as an illustrator. The medium Trekkie has used – lithographic crayon – imitates the types of graphic effects that an artist could achieve by using either charcoal or black chalk in a drawing. This can be most clearly seen in the way Trekkie describes volume and shadow through the use of hatched and cross-hatched lines of varying density, and in the calligraphic manner in which she uses the stripes of ‘Gypsy’s’ dress to describe the flow of the fabric over her body. Although not formally a member of the Bloomsbury Group, Trekkie was influenced by the same modernism that informed the work of Bloomsbury artists such as Vanessa Bell. Trekkie became the partner of Leonard Woolf following the suicide of Virginia Woolf in 1941. Trekkie had been introduced to Leonard and Virginia through the Hogarth Press – Trekkie was asked to design dust jackets for a number of their publications including Vita Sackville-West’s All Passion Spent, 1931. Despite being married, Trekkie moved into Monk’s House a few months after Virginia’s tragic death. She would divide her time between Leonard’s home and that of her husband in London. The exact nature of their relationship was not publicly expressed. However, in his letters to Trekkie Leonard betrayed the strong emotional bond that arose from their unconventional relationship: ‘To know and to love you has been the best thing in life’. At Monk’s House, Leonard extended Virginia’s Writing Lodge to create a studio where Trekkie could paint and also where she could print lithographs. It is probable that this print is one of the works that she undertook whilst there. This lithograph, alongside an oil painting (NT 768772), were purchased directly from Parsons by Professor William Robson of the London School of Economics whilst staying with Woolf and Parsons at Monk’s House, with his young daughter. Robson was a close friend of Leonard Woolf and also collaborated with him on the journal Political Quarterly. The lithograph remained in the Robson family until it was generously donated to Monk’s House. Trekkie would remain Leonard Woolf’s life partner until his death in 1965. He left Monk’s House and the collections he and Virginia amassed to Trekkie. Trekkie in turn sold Monk’s House to the University of Sussex, whilst donating the collections, to act as a monument to the life and work of Leonard and Virginia Woolf. Subsequently, in 1980, the National Trust took over ownership from the University.
Provenance
Purchased from the artist by Professor William A Robson, friend and colleague of Leonard Woolf with whom he founded ‘The Political Quarterly’. By descent to his daughter. Donated to the National Trust in 2024 for Monk’s House.
Marks and inscriptions
Below chair, towards bottom right: TR
Makers and roles
Trekkie Margery Tulip Ritchie Parsons (Province of KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa 1902 - Lewes 1995) , artist