Christine Angus

Christine Drummond Angus (6 June 1877 – 13 October 1920)[1] was a British illustrator and embroiderer. She made several pieces for the furniture designer Ambrose Heal and her designs were often figurative and included illustrations of children.[2][3] She was married to the painter Walter Sickert from 1911 until her death in 1920.

Life and career

Angus was born on 6 June 1877,[1] the daughter of Adrina Agnes Drummond and John Henry Angus, a Scottish leather merchant. The family moved to London in around 1900 and at the 1901 census, Christine was lodging in Torquay and working as an artist with an aunt as her chaperone.[4]

She designed parts of furniture for Ambrose Heal including the inlay work on Joan's Chair, a high chair made in 1901 for Angus' niece.[5] The chair is now recognised as an important piece in the Arts and Crafts movement.[6][7] Heal also bought a piece of Angus' embroidery work which he framed into a tray.[8]

In 1907, she studied drawing at the Slade School of Fine Art (part of what is now University College London) while living at home in London.[9] She was friends with Edith Todhunter at art school who went on to marry Heal; Angus remained close with the family and produced several designs for Heal & Sons.[6][10] In 1916, Angus designed a dalmatic which was used in a children's service at Westminster Abbey and later shown at the 1916 Exhibition.[2]

In early July 1911, the painter Walter Sickert had been jilted at the altar by his fiancée, one of his young art students. He quickly turned his attention to Angus, whom he overwhelmed with correspondence until she became ill and was sent to Chagford, Devon by her family to recuperate. Sickert followed her to Devon and persuaded her to marry him.[11] Angus married Sickert on 29 July 1911 at Paddington Registry Office.[12][13] They had their honeymoon at Neuville and afterwards lived in Harrington Square, Camden Town.[14]

Angus was sickly and suffered from neuritis and chilblains, and according to Patricia Cornwell, Sickert found her ill health inconvenient.[11] She died in October 1920 from tuberculosis.[15]

References
  1. "New General Catalog of Old Books and Authors". Author and Book Info. Retrieved 25 July 2022.
  2. "Sweet Peas by Christine Drummond Angus". Christie's. Retrieved 25 July 2022.
  3. "Cot Hanging ca. 1914 (made)". Victoria and Albert Museum. Retrieved 25 July 2022.
  4. "Notes relating to J H Angus" (PDF). Chalfont History. Retrieved 25 July 2022.
  5. "AMBROSE HEAL CHAIR ACQUIRED BY THE V&A MUSEUM OF CHILDHOOD" (PDF). Gordon Russell Design Museum. January 2014. Retrieved 25 July 2022.
  6. "Joan's chair". Victoria and Albert Museum. Retrieved 25 July 2022.
  7. G. Bernard Hughes (7 November 1952). "VICTORIAN AND EDWARDIAN DECORATION". Country Life. No. 2912. pp. 1476–1477.
  8. Oliver S Heal (October 2014). "Sir Ambrose Heal Newsletter" (PDF). sirambroseheal.wordpress.com. Retrieved 25 July 2022.
  9. UCL Records Office [@UCLRecords] (July 21, 2022). "A scanned image of Christine Drummond Angus' registry record, 1907. She would later marry Walter Sickert, and like him studied at the Slade. Our student records, including registry files like this, and registers/index cards are currently being digitised" (Tweet) – via Twitter.
  10. "Creative Retailing" (PDF). GuildHE. p. 297. Retrieved 25 July 2022.
  11. Patricia Cornwell (2008). "28: Further From The Grave". Portrait of a Killer: Jack the Ripper - Case Closed. Hachette. ISBN 978-0748109494.
  12. Craig Raine (7 March 2009). "Dirty genius". The Guardian. Retrieved 25 July 2022.
  13. Lillian Browse. "SICKERT". Internet Archive. Retrieved 25 July 2022.
  14. Gruetzner Robins, Anna, ed. (2000). Walter Sickert: The Complete Writings on Art. Oxford University Press. p. xxxviii. ISBN 0199261695.
  15. Janine Veronica Bruce (2012). "Static Moments: Photographic Notions of Time in the Paintings of Degas, Vuillard, Bonnard and Sickert" (PDF). University of Canterbury. p. 47. Retrieved 25 July 2022.
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