Jesse Dale Cast

(British 1900 – 1976)

Ruby Gunthorp, c.1938-39

graphite and sanguine chalk on paper

inscribed verso ‘BY JESSE CAST/ OF RUBY/ CIRCA 1938-39’

29 x 22 cm.

(framed 37 x 30.5 cm.)

in a period frame

Ruby Gunthorp was the daughter of artists Beatrice and Cecil Gunthorp, presumably friends of Cast. This delicate portrait study is in the style of a Renaissance old master, and it presumably relates to an oil version (location unknown).

As a teenager, Cast worked in the design studio of Harrods, among others, and attended life classes at St. Martin’s School of Art. He won a scholarship from the London County Council to study full time at Camberwell School of Arts and Crafts between 1920-1922, and went on to the Slade under Henry Tonks between 1922-1926 where he won first prize in Drawing Heads from Life to Decorative Design.