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Dame Rebecca West (Cicily Isabel Andrews (née Fairfield))

2 of 29 portraits of Dame Rebecca West (Cicily Isabel Andrews (née Fairfield))

© Wyndham Lewis and the estate of the late Mrs G A Wyndham Lewis by kind permission of the Wyndham Lewis Memorial Trust (a registered charity)

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Dame Rebecca West (Cicily Isabel Andrews (née Fairfield))

by Wyndham Lewis
pencil, 1932
17 in. x 12 1/4 in. (430 mm x 310 mm)
Purchased, 1983
Primary Collection
NPG 5693

Sitterback to top

Artistback to top

  • (Percy) Wyndham Lewis (1882-1957), Painter and novelist. Artist or producer associated with 39 portraits, Sitter in 18 portraits.

This portraitback to top

In 1932 Wyndham Lewis held an exhibition at the Lefevre Galleries called 'Thirty Personalities', subsequently published as Thirty Personalities and a Self-Portrait. It consisted of thirty drawings of celebrities of the day, including Rebecca West, the novelist, critic and former mistress of H.G. Wells. Lewis had met her before the First World War, when he described her arrival at a dinner party as 'a dark young maenad then, who burst through the dining-room door (for she was late) like a thunderbolt'. West became a contributor to the Vorticist magazine BLAST and remained an admirer of Lewis' writings. The drawing well conveys her intelligence and Amazonian good looks.

Linked publicationsback to top

  • Birkett, Dea; Morris, Jan (foreword), Off the Beaten Track: Three Centuries of Women Travellers, 2004 (accompanying the exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery from 7 July to 31 October 2004), p. 24
  • Edwards, Paul, Wyndham Lewis Portraits, 2008 (accompanying the exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery from 3 July to 19 October 2008), p. 78
  • Rogers, Malcolm, Master Drawings from the National Portrait Gallery, 1993 (accompanying the exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery from 5 August to 23 October 1994), p. 173
  • Saumarez Smith, Charles, The National Portrait Gallery: An Illustrated Guide, 2000, p. 195
  • Saumarez Smith, Charles, The National Portrait Gallery, 1997, p. 195 Read entry

    In 1932 Wyndham Lewis held an exhibition at the Lefevre Galleries called 'Thirty Personalities', subsequently published as Thirty Personalities and a Self-Portrait. It consisted of thirty drawings of celebrities of the day, including Rebecca West, the novelist, critic and former mistress of H.G. Wells. Lewis had met her before the First World War, when he described her arrival at a dinner party as 'a dark young maenad then, who burst through the dining-room door (for she was late) like a thunderbolt'. West became a contributor to the Vorticist magazine BLAST and remained an admirer of Lewis' writings. The drawing well conveys her intelligence and Amazonian good looks.

  • Saywell, David; Simon, Jacob, Complete Illustrated Catalogue, 2004, p. 654

Linked displays and exhibitionsback to top

Events of 1932back to top

Current affairs

Sir Oswald Mosley forms the British Union of Fascists. Mosley's party - nicknamed the Black Shirts after their uniform - was founded along the lines of Mussolini's Fascist Party in Italy and called for the replacement of parliamentary democracy with a system of elected executives. During the war Mosley was interned and the BUF was proscribed.

Art and science

John Cockcroft and Ernest Walton 'split the atom'. In fact, Cockcroft and Walton's achievement was to change the nucleus of one element into another by bombarding it with protons, rather than to literally spit an atom apart. Nevertheless 'splitting the atom' has become the popular way of describing this important stage in the development of nuclear technology.

International

Saudi Arabia is formed by the unification of the Kingdoms of Hijaz and Nejd under King Abdul Aziz.
Iraq is granted independence from the British mandate established by the League of Nations in 1919-20.

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