Alice Margaret Coats (15 June 1905 – 19 May 1978, in Bath)[1] was a British watercolor painter, engraver, woodcut artist, and author. She was a member of the Central Club of Wood-Engravers in Colour.[2] She is best known for botanical and
horticultural works.[3]
Life
Alice Margaret Coats was born on 15 June 1905 in Handsworth, Birmingham to a Scottish clergyman, the Rev. Robert Hay Coats, and his wife Margaret, who was from Glasgow.[4][5] Coats was educated at
Edgbaston High School before studying at the
Birmingham Central School of Art between 1922 and 1928, at the
Slade School of Fine Art in London and in Paris during the 1930s at
Andre Lhote's school.[6][1][5] Coats produced book illustrations, flower paintings on silk, colour woodcuts, and landscape paintings in both oil and watercolours.[5]
Between 1933 and 1939 Coats was an organizing secretary of the ‘Birmingham Group’ of artists and during
World War II from 1940 to 1945 served in the Land Army helping to cultivate land on which
Birmingham University housing was later built.[4]
In the 1950s, her artistic career was cut short by arthritis and since then she concentrated on her writings and the study of horticultural history.[3] Coats wrote a series of scholarly articles and books on horticultural history and biography that were recognized by the
Royal Horticultural Society and the University of Birmingham.[4]
In 1965, Coats joined the newly founded
Garden History Society and contributed articles to Garden History.[4]
Her first book Flowers and their History was published in 1956.[7] Among her other works were Garden Shrubs and their Histories (1963), The Quest for Plants: a History of the Horticultural Explorers (1969), The Treasury of Flowers (1975), and Lord Bute (1975).[4] Her book The Book of Flowers (1973) included woodcuts, engravings and watercolors.[3]
Exhibitions
1961 Kenya, Nairobi, Sorsbie Gallery
1961 India, Mumbai, Jehangir Nicholson Gallery
1960 Cyprus, Nicosia, British Council Office - Nicosia
^
abcdeStearn, William T.; Hadfield, Miles (1978). "Obituary: Miss Alice Margaret Coats (1905-78)". Garden History. 6 (3): 4–6.
ISSN0307-1243.
JSTOR1586637.
^
abcSara Gray (2019). British Women Artists. A Biographical Dictionary of 1000 Women Artists in the British Decorative Arts. Dark River.
ISBN978-1-911121-63-3.
^
abcdDavid Buckman (2006). Artists in Britain Since 1945 Vol 1, A to L. Art Dictionaries Ltd.
ISBN0-953260-95-X.
^COATS, ALICE MARGARET (1905-1978) (1975). THE TREASURY OF FLOWERS. London: Phaidon Press in association with The Royal Horticultural Society.
OCLC1121285526.{{
cite book}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (
link)
^Coats, Alice Margaret (1975). Lord Bute: an illustrated life of John Stuart, third Earl of Bute, 1713-1792. Aylesbury: Shire Publications.
ISBN978-0-85263-272-7.
OCLC876859435.