Lavenham

 

Valerie Thornton

  1931 - 1991 (biography)

c. 1975  

color etching and aquatint 

15 3/4 x 20 5/8" platemark 

pencil, lower right 

28 of 50  

pencil editioned; blindstamp in lower left (letters A L) 

 

heavy cream wove with HANDMADE watermark 

published 

artist 

17371 

SOLD

British: 1931 - 1991 Valerie Thornton was born in London [1931] where she later studied art at the Regent Street Polytechnic School of Art 1950-53. In 1954 she went to Paris and studied printmaking with the renowned teacher Stanley William Hayter at Atelier 17. Thornton then moved to New York where she spent two years at the Pratt Institute. Her first exhibition of etchings and watercolours was held in 1960 since when there have been numerous shows in Britain and America. During the 1970s Thornton made etchings of several East Anglian churches and ecclesiastical and architectural subjects continued to form a major part of her artistic output throughout her career. She travelled extensively in France, Italy and Spain and Romanesque [Norman] churches provided a rich source of inspiration. Although Thornton occasionally tried abstract styles she most commonly employed representational elements in her work. Thornton's work is to be found in several public collections both in Britain [the Victoria & Albert Museum and the Fitzwilliam Museum] and America [Museum of Modern Art, New York]. She died in 1991.