Derwent Lees

Derwent Lees (14 November 1884 – 24 March 1931) was an Australian landscape painter.

Born Desmond Lees in Hobart, Australia, Lees taught drawing at the Slade School of Fine Art in London, England, and was a member of the New English Art Club from 1911.

He was a friend of Augustus John and James Dickson Innes, and spent the period from late 1910 to 1912 with them at a cottage called Nant Ddu in north Wales. In 1912 Innes and Lees went on another painting trip to Collioure in France.^[1]

His artistic career was curtailed by a mental health problem which saw him confined to an asylum from 1918 until his death in 1931.

Works in collections

Title	Year	Medium	Gallery no.	Gallery	Location
Lyndra at the Pool	1909	Oil on wood panel	29025	National Gallery of Australia	Canberra, Australia
Four Heads	1910	Pencil & paper	H1979.5	Brighton and Hove Museums	Brighton, England
Landscape at Collioure	1910	Watercolour & gouache on paper	N04241	Tate Gallery	London, England
The Awakening	1910	Watercolour, pen & ink	63973	National Gallery of Australia	Canberra, Australia
Lyndria in Wales	1910-14	Oil on paper	2450	Fitzwilliam Museum	Cambridge, England
Evening	1911	Oil on canvas	9684	Government Art Collection	London, England
Girl in a Black Hat	1912	Oil on wood panel	1888-4	National Gallery of Victoria	Melbourne, Australia
Metairie des Abeilles	1912	Oil on wood	N05355	Tate Gallery[2]	London, England
Metairie des Abeilles	1912	Watercolour on paper	N05356	Tate Gallery	London, England
Spanish Landscape	1912	Oil on wood panel	29026	National Gallery of Australia	Canberra, Australia
Spanish Landscape	1912-14	Oil on board	H1990.24	Brighton and Hove Museums	Brighton, England
Lyndra, the Artist's Wife	1913	Pencil & paper & board	H1981.7	Brighton and Hove Museums	Brighton, England
Lyndra in a Landscape	1913	Oil on wood panel	1821-4	National Gallery of Victoria	Melbourne, Australia
Pear Tree in Blossom	1913	Oil on wood	N05021	Tate Gallery	London, England
The Yellow Skirt	1914	Oil on wood panel	127080	National Gallery of Australia	Canberra, Australia
Self Portrait	1917	Etching	D5046	National Portrait Gallery	London, England
Not titled [Eve holding the apple]	1920-29	Watercolour, pen & ink, pencil on cardboard	57603	National Gallery of Australia	Canberra, Australia
Not titled [Portrait study: Woman with head turned to the right]	1920-29	Brush & ink & pencil on paper	57591	National Gallery of Australia	Canberra, Australia
Not titled [Profile portrait of a woman]	1920-29	Pencil on paper	57597	National Gallery of Australia	Canberra, Australia
Not titled [Woman reading]	1920-29	Pencil, ink & pen on paper	57600	National Gallery of Australia	Canberra, Australia
Lady Howard de Walden		Pencil on paper	FA101413	Brighton and Hove Museums	Brighton, England
Welsh Landscape in Winter		Oil on wood panel	1951.1086	Glynn Vivian Art Gallery	Swansea, Wales

References

1. ^ Carrick Hill
2. ^ Tate Collection: Derwent Lees

• DNB

Further reading

• Derwent Lees, "Drawings", The Blue Review, Vol. I No. I (May, 1913).
• Alleyne Zander, "Derwent Lees", Art in Australia, series 3, no. 48, Feb 1933.
• Eric Rowan, Some miraculous promised land: J. D. Innes, Augustus John and Derwent Lees in North Wales 1910–13, Llandudno: Mostyn Art Gallery, 1982.
• Merlin James, "Derwent Lees", The London Magazine, Feb/Mar 1992.
• Henry R. Lew, In Search of Derwent Lees, privately published by Henry R. Lew, North Caulfield, Victoria, Australia. 1996. ISBN 0-646-28383-9.
• Henry R. Lew, "J.D. Innes and Derwent Lees", The Australasian Antique Collector, Dec 1997–June 1998.

Persondata
Name	Lees, Derwent
Alternative names
Short description
Date of birth	1885
Place of birth
Date of death	24 March 1931
Place of death