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Gerald Leslie Brockhurst
Cypriano (A Basque Boy)

1927

About the Item

Etching on cream wove paper. 6 5/16 x 3 3/4 inches (159 x 94 mm), full margin. Signed in pencil lower center margin, from the edition of 111. A well inked impression with a minor crease at bottom right corner, otherwise in excellent condition. [Fletcher 59] __________ Born on Halloween in the Edgbaston district of Birmingham in 1890, Gerald Leslie Brockhurst showed early and extraordinary proficiency in draftsmanship. The son of a coal merchant, Brockhurst earned a place in the prestigious Birmingham School of Art at the tender age of 12. At 24, he married Frenchwoman Anaïs Folin, whom he had met and fallen in love with while on a traveling scholarship through France and Italy. Shortly after their marriage in 1914, the two moved to Ireland, where Brockhurst became friendly with a circle of artists, including Augustus John, and it was during this time that Brockhurst started to experiment with printmaking. Folin served as the model for his portraits of women, and young womanhood, which were heavily influenced by the 15th century compositions by da Vinci and Boticelli which Brockhurst had seen while on tour. He found printmaking to be lucrative media, and by 1921, he had enjoyed an extremely successful solo show in London. His reception was so warm and enthusiastic in fact, that Brockhurst and Folin left Ireland, and settled permanently in London. Enveloped in his new found celebrity, Brockhurst became a bit of a society darling, and focused his talents on portraits of cinema stars, members of royalty, and cultural icons of the day. His ability to capture the lush textures of fur, hair, velvet, and luminous skin, both with a brush and with the etching needle, made him a favorite among women. During the 1930's he had sitters that included Marlene Dietrich, the Duchess of Windsor, and Merle Oberon, the Indian-born British actress whose life was every bit as fascinating and turbulent as the roles she played on screen. The rise of motion picture making in America was an inviting opportunity for Brockhurst, and when his marriage came under strain, he left Folin in London and moved to New York with his young model, Kathleen Woodward, also known as Dorette. In New York he found renewed energy, fortune, and warm reception as his career as a society portraitist flourished. Brockhurst lived out the rest of his long life in America with Dorette. The two settled in Franklin Lakes, New Jersey, where he died peacefully at the age of 88. Despite the fact that the most famous faces of the day sat in his studio, he is best known for his small, honest, and endearing etchings from the 1920s. It is this body of work that has been most enduring in the eyes of collectors; the compositions unadulterated by the idealisms demanded by fame, and yet filled with equal aplomb.