Jean Bratby
John Randall Bratby (Wimbledon 1928 - Hastings 1992)
Category
Art / Drawings and watercolours
Date
1959 - 1961
Materials
Pencil on paper
Measurements
489 x 400 mm
Order this imageCollection
Mottisfont, Hampshire
NT 769731
Summary
Drawing, pencil on paper, Jean Bratby by John Randall Bratby (Wimbledon 1928 - 1992)
Full description
Drawing, pencil on paper, Jean Bratby by John Randall Bratby (Wimbledon 1928 - 1992) John Bratby was one of the Kitchen Sink painters who became known in the 1950s for their unadorned representations of every day life. He joined the London Group in 1957. Here, Bratby has depicted his wife Jean with the same ‘warts and all’ approach he took to his piles of dirty dishes. Dense lines construct her untidy hair and glowering face, and an old cardigan that is both strained at its one button and baggy around the edges. It’s a wonderfully evocative portrait, both of Jean and of their increasingly tempestuous marriage. Jean Cooke was also a painter; while John initially encouraged his wife, he became violent and jealous when her work began to be thought better than his. They divorced in 1977, and Jean went on to enjoy a successful painting career on her own.
Provenance
Presented by Derek Hill (1916 - 2000) through The National Art Collections Fund (Art Fund) in 1996
Credit line
Mottisfont Abbey,The Derek Hill Collection (presented to the National Trust through the National Art-Collections Fund in 1996)
Makers and roles
John Randall Bratby (Wimbledon 1928 - Hastings 1992), artist