Talks from Twitter

The information that comes into my world and on to this blog comes from either reading it or talking to people. Twice this weekend I have got my notebook out and scribbled down references about people. In the research, links are made and there is a spider’s web of connections until I am surrounded with books like a bird in a nest.

Margaret Bryan’s name appeared on Twitter, who was she and what had she done? Well there isn’t a lot of information out there but what I have amassed so far is this:

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 Margaret Bryan – The Deluge

Margaret Bryan was born in 1903. A Nottingham artist, most noted for her wood engravings. She was working from the mid-1920s to the late 1930s. After this point it is harder to find out information. During the 20s she appeared a few times in newspaper and magazine reviews of art shows but then it all stops. One can only guess married life and children slowed the pace of her work. In 1929 Margaret lived in Castle Road and was also traced to Lucknow Avenue, Mapperley Park, Nottingham. In 1947 she illustrated Henry Bell’s Children’s Almanac.

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 Margaret Bryan – After El Creco, 1931

Miss Margaret Bryan’s interpretations of Michelangelo and El Greco are far from incompetent. The Apollo – October, 1931.

The quote above comes from an exhibition where her work was shown beside Blair Hughes-Stanton and Gertrude Hermes. The show is likely to be from the short lived English Wood Engraving Society, a splinter group from the Society of Wood Engravers.; Their aim was to attract artists who were not solely interested in book illustration, but rather, wanted to make wood engravings that were independent of such an illustrative function.

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 Margaret Bryan – The Fisherman

Below are two pages from A Children’s Almanac, 1947. the simple pen drawings are layered with a simple one colour image overlay.

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 Margaret Bryan – Autumn, 1947

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 Margaret Bryan – Summer, 1947

It was another blogger who pointed the link between Bryan and the illustration for The Litter Gallery’s Christmas advert. In my time the illustration below has been attributed to Edward Bawden and Barbara Jones because it is designed with a B but I would say they are correct and it is Margaret Bryan. The Muriel Rose archive also never attribute the artist of the advert so it is in some doubt.

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Christmas Advert for The Little Gallery

Bryan also designed the illustrations on the World Favourite Library for Boys and Girls books dust jacket. Her designs were used as a uniform dust jacket, the illustration always being the same but the name of the book printed over it changes. The series was published by Peter Lunn who also published A Children’s Almanac, both in 1947.

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Nash – Summer Gypsies, with the uniform jacket by Margaret Bryan, 1947

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 Margaret Bryan – Macbeth

Olga Lehmann, Boxed In

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 Olga Lehmann – Bristol Aircraft Company: Underground Factory at Corsham

Brunel’s cutting of the Box Railway Tunnel, beside the village of Corsham, revealed a rich seam of high quality stone beneath the hills in 1838. Intense quarrying followed, leaving a network of quarries with worked-out chambers and air shafts, including Spring Quarry. The entrance for Spring Quarry was beside the East entrance of Box Tunnel.

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In December 1940 four quarries were requisitioned by the Ministry, including Spring Quarry, to the south of the Box Tunnel. It covers a vast 3,300,000 square foot area (or 76 acres).

The quarry was adapted to use as an underground aircraft factory in the early 1940s. The place underground was a little dreary, with the walls that could be painted, coloured in standard military shades. To brighten the place up, a series of murals were commissioned.

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 Olga Lehmann – Mural design for the Canteen in the Censorship Division.
Left: Admiralty, Ministry of Information and Home Security, Centre: Health & Censorship. Right: Min of Works, Buildings, Foreign Office & War Office. A Skit of government departments, hence the red tape.

 Olga Lehmann – Mural Design Detail

The murals in Spring Quarry were painted by Olga Lehmann (assisted by Gilbert Wood). They show a number of themed scenes, including a racecourse, a fairground, sporting scenes and cartoon-like depictions of primitive cultures. The majority of the murals are in a mess hall, although there are isolated examples in outer rooms and corridors.

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 Photo of Lehmann painting a mural at the Wardens’ Club, St Pancras ARP headquarters in London, 21st August 1940.

The rest of these photos are from the Spring Quarry / Corsham Underground centre.

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