Phyllis Hallett

(South Norwood, London 1926-1990)

Melon Group, c. 1954-1955

oil on canvas

with the remnants of a New English Art Club exhibition label with the title 'Melon Group', and remnants of the artist's hand-written address label in Forest Hill, verso 

41 x 51cm.

in its original frame

Phyllis Hallett attended Goldsmiths' in the early 1950s, where her tutors included Clive Gardiner and Betty Swanick. She exhibited at the New English Art Club winter exhibitions in 1954 and 1955 - with a watercolour entitled 'The Fruit Seller' and an oil of 'Several Prawns' respectively. The present work must also have been exhibited with NEAC around that time given the exhibition label attached to the reverse, but frustratingly no record exists of it beyond its label. Hallett wrote and illustrated several childrens' books in the 1970s, and that seems to have been the way that she made her living.