(Bloomsbury Group, Jean Shepeard, Doreen Kern, Francis Bacon...

Hammer

£110

(Bloomsbury Group, Jean Shepeard, Doreen Kern, Francis Bacon.) Martin Harrison: 'In Camera - Francis Bacon: Photography, Film and the Practice of Painting', London, Thames & Hudson, 2005, 1st edition, signed & inscribed by Harrison to Doreen Kern (1931–2021), British Postwar & Contemporary artist, sculptor in bronze, niece of the artist and actress Jean Shepeard (1904-1989), "For Doreen with renewed thanks & kindest regards, Martin. Martin Harrison 2005", plus Typed Letter Signed and Autograph Postcard Signed from Harrison to Kern, both 2005, along with other associated ephemera loosely inserted, original cloth lettered in silver, dust wrapper, the book itself with content on Jean Shepeard pages 23, 26 & 79; Jean Shepeard (1904-1989), charcoal portrait on paper, initialled 'JS', 22.5 x 17.5cm, together with a good quantity of ephemera, photocopies/prints of other artworks by Jean Shepeard, Jonathan Poole Gallery letters, invoices, photocopies of correspondence, invoices and related ephemera, two photographs of Jean Shepeard c.1930's/40's (each 24 x 19cm), photocopies of drawings by Shepeard include portraits of Virginia Woolf, Vanessa Bell, R.O. Dunlop, Edith Sitwell, George Bernard Shaw etc etc, these all having been in the possession of Doreen Kern, who in the 1990's discovered that her reclusive aunt, Jean Shepeard, was a lost member of the Bloomsbury set. After inheriting a large black chest from her late aunt containing various portrait sketches by her and letters and photographs, Doreen Kern set about resurrecting the artistic career of Jean Shepeard posthumously; Peter Cotes: 'Thinking Aloud. Fragments of Autobiography', L, Peter Owen, 1993, 1st edition, signed and inscribed by Cotes to Doreen Kern on title page "To Doreen Kern, for the niece of Jean Shepeard: keeping alive the name of an actress, painter, and above all, her own woman...In memory, from Peter Cotes. August 1996", orig. cloth, dust wrapper; Frances Partridge: 'Good Company. Diaries January 1967-December 1969', 1995, paperback, signed & inscribed to Doreen Kern dated 26th October 1995, orig. wraps; packet containing several letters to Jean Shepeard c.1920's-1950's re her acting career, plays etc, including TLS from Assistant Comptroller, Lord Chamberlain's Office, 4th July 1951, re requesting for omissions to be made in the play "Into Our Charge", plus others including TLS from Anmer Hall, July 19th, 1929, others Holyrood Film Productions, BBC, News Chronicle etc; plus another packet containing a good quantity of colour photographs of artworks by Jean Shepeard etc. Jean Shepeard (1904-1989) was a well known actress and artist. She studied at the Slade School of Fine Art and then trained at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in 1925. Sharing a flat with Peggy Ashcroft, in 1928 she bacame a member of the Emotionist Group of painters, musicians, philosophers, poets and actors which had been founded by the artist R.O. Dunlop. In 1929 she exhibited with Francis Bacon and Roy de Maistre in Bacon's Queensbury Mews rooms and in the same year she showed with The Redfern Gallery, London. Her work was admired for the sensitivity, beauty of line, vigour and character of her drawings. Her drawings were then exhibited in 1933 in a one woman show at the Lefevre Gallery in London. Somewhat on the periphery of the Bloomsbury set, Jean Sheapeard went on to exhibit with VAnessa Bell and others at the Modern Picture Library. She also performed in numerous plays at leading theatres along with John Gielgud, Jack Buchanan, Sybil Thorndike and others, and in her later years acting was the main focus of her working life