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| Norwich Cathedral | Abstract 1950s |
1931 - 1991
Internationally recognized, Suffolk-based etcher and print-maker. Born London and initially attended Elinor Birley’s Primary School, Charterhouse, before being evacuated to Montreal, Canada with her two brothers during the war years. Returned to London 1944 to continue her education and began art school training at the Byam Shaw School of Drawing and Painting (1949), later qualifying at Regent Street Polytechnic under P F Millard.
Became attracted to the work of Winifed Nicholson after receiving one of her paintings as a 21st birthday present. During this period, she began her long love affair with architecture, after visiting a photographic exhibition featuring details of church buildings. She also became interested in the work of English romantics such as Stanley Spencer and Graham Sutherland. Equally influential was S.W. Hayter’s film about the revolutionary etching work being done at his Atelier 17 workshop in Paris, which led her to undertake an eight-month residency with Hayter in Paris (1954). On her return to England she immediately purchased her first etching press.
After a six-week grand tour of Italy (1955), studying and drawing, she succeeded Howard Hodgkin as Assistant Art Teacher at Charterhouse School. She also began her long association with Cedric Morris and Arthur Lett-Haines's East Anglian School of Painting and Drawing at Benton End, Hadleigh. There she met Rosemary Rutherford, the stained glass artist whom she later accompanied on many subsequent trips to Paris. In 1956 she was invited by Michael Chase to exhibit in his 'New Editions' original print exhibitions at the Zwemmer Gallery (with Edward Bawden, John Piper, Julian Trevelyan, Merlyn Evans, Bernard Cheese and others). This was followed by publication of her prints by Paul Cornwall-Jones of Editions Alecto. Sales of her work supported her during a ten month residency at the Pratt Graphic Art Center Workshop in New York and also funded a study trip to Mexico.
In 1965 she became a founder member of the newly formed Printmakers’ Council and received an invitation to visit Winifred Nicholson at her home in Cumbria – this was to become the start of an enduring friendship. Thornton moved to the Minories in Colchester in 1966, after marrying Michael Chase, who had been appointed curator there. In 1969 she was invited to become and Associate of the Royal Society of Painter/Etchers and Engravers. The following year was to be made a fellow, and began exhibiting regularly at the Royal Academy Summer Exhibition. In 1974 Chase and Thornton settled in Chelsworth, West Sussex – thereafter followed regular summer working trips to Spain, France and Italy in search of Romanesque material for her etchings. In 1990, shortly before her death, Thornton was Interviewed on Third Ear, BBC Radio 3, with Dr Judith Collins of the Tate Gallery.
Her work is featured in many public collections, including The British Museum; The Tate Gallery; Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge; The National Gallery, Ottawa; The Metropolitan Museum, New York; The New York Public Library.
Exhibitions Include:
1960 The Minories, Colchester; 1961 Bear Lane Gallery, Oxford Print Club, Philadelphia; 1965 Zwemmer Gallery, London (also 1970, 1981, 1982 and 1984); 1973 Old Fire Engine House, Ely; 1974 The Minories, Colchester Patterns of Stone and Brick; 1975 Oxford Gallery, Oxford (also 1981); 1976 Bruton Gallery, Bruton; 1977 Touring exhibition: Faces of Stone; 1980 Gilbert Parr Gallery, London; 1982 Touring exhibition: Faces of Stone II; 1985 Touring exhibition: Two Journeys with Michael Chase; 1990 Albemarle Gallery, London; 1992 The Redfern Gallery, London, a retrospective; 2004 The Redfern Gallery, London - Prints and Drawings;