Queen Mary's Dolls' House
A guide to Windsor Castle's famous Dolls’ House.
GERALD BROCKHURST (1890-1978)
The head of a woman
signed & dated 1922RCIN 926848
A miniature portrait drawing of the head of a woman, turned half to the right; with bobbed hair and a headscarf around her brow. Signed and dated below.
Several of the Dolls' House watercolours of women portray a distinctly Edwardian sensibility. By contrast another group of these miniature portraits is notable for representing the modern post-war woman. In these portraits old-fashioned straw bonnets and ribbons are replaced by the 1920s vogue for bobbed hair and headscarves. The woman in this drawing by the portraitist Gerald Brockhurst looks candidly out at the viewer. She is typical of figures drawn by Brockhurst, who specialised in portraits of women whose fearlessness and independence sometimes seem to radiate from the canvas. His notable sitters included the actresses Merle Oberon and Marlene Dietrich, and Wallis Simpson, the Duchess of Windsor.
Several of the Dolls' House watercolours of women portray a distinctly Edwardian sensibility. By contrast another group of these miniature portraits is notable for representing the modern post-war woman. In these portraits old-fashioned straw bonnets and ribbons are replaced by the 1920s vogue for bobbed hair and headscarves. The woman in this drawing by the portraitist Gerald Brockhurst looks candidly out at the viewer. She is typical of figures drawn by Brockhurst, who specialised in portraits of women whose fearlessness and independence sometimes seem to radiate from the canvas. His notable sitters included the actresses Merle Oberon and Marlene Dietrich, and Wallis Simpson, the Duchess of Windsor.
