Umbrellas Gallery

January, 1951. Creator: Shirley Markham

January, 1951. Design for a calendar. Shirley Markham (1931-1999) studied Graphic Design and Illustration at Central School of Art in London from 1950-1952. The writer, artist, poet, and illustrator Mervyn Peake (1911-1968) was one of her tutors, and her style of drawing was also influenced by other British illustrators such as Edward Ardizzone, Quentin Blake and Edward Bawden. Markham spent time in the Dolomite Mountains in Italy, and also visited Rome, sketching classical buildings. After graduating from Central, she worked as a graphic designer, producing book illustrations, cartoons for comics, menus and programmes. She gave up her promising career however when she got married in 1957. Middle-class women at that time were expected to devote their energies to bringing up children and running the home, and despite her obvious talent, she lacked the confidence to return to illustration. Her portfolio remained in the family attic for many years, but now her work is published here for the first time

© Shirley Markham Collection / Heritage-Images

Fuji no uraba, from the series "A Fashionable Parody of the Tale of Genji"

Fuji no uraba, from the series "A Fashionable Parody of the Tale of Genji (Furyu yatsushi Genji)", c. 1789/94. Yugiri, son of the Shining Prince, has won the love of Kumoinokari, daughter of To-no-Chuju, at a wisteria party

© Heritage Art/Heritage Images

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The Actor Segawa Kikunojo II as the Heron Maiden in the play "Cotton Wadding of Izu

The Actor Segawa Kikunojo II as the Heron Maiden in the play "Cotton Wadding of Izu Protecting the Matrimonial Chrysanthemums (Myoto-giku Izu no Kisewata), " performed at the Ichimura Theater from the first day of the eleventh month, 1770, 1770

© Heritage Art/Heritage Images

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