Dorothy Coke | |
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Born | 11 April 1897
Southend-on-Sea, Essex, England |
Died | 1979 (aged 81–82) Brighton, Sussex, England |
Education | Slade School of Fine Art |
Known for | Painting |
Dorothy Josephine Coke (11 April 1897 – 1979) was an English artist notable for her work as a war artist on the British home front during the Second World War. [1] Coke was also an art teacher and as an artist was known for her watercolours, which have a very free, open-air quality to them. [2]
Coke was born in Southend-on-Sea in Essex in 1897, where her father was a tea exporter. [3] When she was seventeen, Coke entered the Slade School of Art, where she continued to study throughout the First World War and where she won a prize for figure composition. [3] In the summer of 1918 Coke submitted some sketches to the British War Memorials Committee for a possible commission. That proposal was rejected but shortly afterwards Muirhead Bone bought two of her watercolours for the Imperial War Museum collection. [4] [5] In 1919 she was elected a member of the New English Art Club. [6]
By the start of World War Two Coke was a popular and well known artist. During the War she received a short-term commission from the War Artists Advisory Committee to depict the work being performed by women in various services. [7] To this end she spent time with the Women's Voluntary Service, the Auxiliary Territorial Service, the Women's Auxiliary Air Force and also with the Red Cross. [8] One of her paintings was included in the Britain at War exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art in New York which opened in May 1941. [9] By the end of the War, WAAC had acquired eight paintings from Coke. [4] During the War, in 1943, she was elected a member of the Royal Watercolour Society, having previously become an Associate member in 1935. [6]
After the War, Coke taught art at Brighton College of Art until her retirement in 1967. [1] [10]