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Mary Adshead (1904 - 1995)

Main details

Main details for this item.
Reference number
1996/5207
Name
Mary Adshead
Born
1904
Collection
Object type
  • Person
Completeness
40%
  • Biography

    AttributeValue
    Biography
    Mary Adshead was the daughter of Stanley Adshead, an artist, architect and Professor of Civic Design. She studied under Professor Henry Tonks, who arranged her first mural project with fellow student Rex Whistler in 1924. Numerous public and private commissions followed, including decorative work at Bank and Piccadilly Circus Underground Stations. Adshead exhibited regularly at the Royal Academy from 1927. She illustrated children's books and designed stamps for the General Post Office in 1949, 1951 and 1953. In the 1960s she studied mosaic design, a technique she incorporated into murals including decorative work for a pedestrian subway in Rotherhithe in 1983. In the 1980s and 1990s she ran sketching tours in Malta, Turkey and Madeira.
    Education
    The Slade School of Fine Art, 1921-1924
    Kingston Art School, 1962
    Employment
    Designed posters for the Underground Group and London Transport, 1927-1937
    Role
    Artist,