Mary Sargant Florence

Mary Sargant Florence

Mary Sargant Florence (21 July 1857–14 December 1954) was a British painter of figure subjects, mural decorations in fresco and occasional landscapes in watercolour and pastel. She was born in London, née Sargant, sister of the sculptor F.W. Sargant. She studied in Paris under Luc-Olivier Merson and at the Slade School under Alphonse Legros. She was a member of the New English Art Club and the Society of Painters in Tempera.

In 1888 she married Henry Smyth Florence, an American musician. They had two children. After her husband's death by drowning, she moved to Marlow, Buckinghamshire, and built her house "Lordswood" (1899–1900), where she lived until 1940.

She is known for her works Children at Chess (c.1903), Suffer Little Children to Come unto Me (1913) and Pentecost (c.1913). She painted fresco decorations at the Old School, Oakham, Rutland (c.1909–14), and at Bournville School near Birmingham (1912–14). Her frescoes at Oakham were commissioned by her brother, the headmaster of Oakham School and illustrate the Arthurian story of Gareth.[1]

She was a suffragist and a member of the committee for the Hague Peace Congress.[2] With the Cambridge University scholar and editor C.K. Ogden she published a book on militarism and feminism, which argued that women had the prerogative and responsibility to combat international militarism.[3]

In 1940, she wrote Colour Co-Ordination, a work on the history, theory and aesthetics of colour.[4] She edited two volumes of the Papers of the Society of Painters in Tempera.

She died at Twickenham, Middlesex.

She was the mother of Alix Strachey, the British psychoanalyst and translator into English of the works of Sigmund Freud.

References

  1. ^ The quest for the Grail: Arthurian legend in British art, 1840-1920 (p68-9) by Christine Poulson
  2. ^ Sharon Ouditt. Fighting forces, writing women: identity and ideology in the First World War, Routledge, 1993 ISBN 0415047056 ISBN 978-0415047050
  3. ^ C.K. Ogden and Mary Sargant Florence. Militarism versus Feminism: An Enquiry and a Policy Demonstrating that Militarism involves the Subjection of Women, London: Allen and Unwin, 1915
  4. ^ M. Sargant Florence. Colour Co-ordination, London: John Lane, 1940

External links


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