Mary Adshead (1904–1995)

Mary Adshead was born in the Bloomsbury neighborhood of London. She was the only child of Stanley Davenport Adshead, an architect, painter, and professor of Civic Design, and his wife Annie. She attended Putney High School and then spent six months studying in Paris. Due to her father's position at London University, she was allowed to enroll at the Slade School of Art in 1921, aged only 16. There her abilities were recognized and she launched a successful career as a muralist for both public and private spaces. A female artist working at a time when most British
women were still largely confined to the domestic sphere, her
prodigious professional output was noteworthy. Working with her husband Stephen Bone, she illustrated two children's books, including The Little Boy and His House. In 1930. she was elected a member of the New English Art Club. She designed stamps for Post Office for the 1951 Festival of Britain, and the frame around the portrait of Queen Elizabeth II on other stamps. In 1950, she decorated the fourth-floor restaurant of Selfridge's with jungle scenes. Other commissions included poster designs for London Transport as well as painting sets for the 1963 film Cleopatra. After her husband's death in 1958, Mary traveled widely in both Europe and the USA, and in 1966 she published Travelling with a Sketchbook: A

Guide to
Carry on a
First
Sketching Holiday. She
was the subject of a retrospective at Liverpool Art Gallery in 2005.