Rosa Branson

(Camden, London b. 1933)

Camden Square

oil on board

signed lower left ‘ROSA BRANSON 1954’

26 x 22 cm.

This was painted by Rosa Branson in 1954 when she was just 21, had graduated from Camberwell School of Art and was heading for the Slade where she "found that the school teaching methods still did not meet her needs". It depicts the front steps of her home in Camden Square. Her parents were prominent Communist party members, and her mother a historian. As a young artist she worked predominantly with embroidery, textiles and collage, and it was through copying paintings in the National Gallery that she developed her painting techniques and fascination with old masters, under the guidance of the gallery’s then chief restorer, Professor Helmut Ruhemann.