Dame Eileen Mayo DBE 

(Norwich 1906-1994)

Juma, 1934

pencil on paper

30 x 40 cm.

This compelling pencil sketch by Eileen Mayo dates  from circa 1934/early 1935. The artist sailed for Durban on 11 October  1934 and was back in London a year later. She was clearly entranced by  South Africa and its people, also producing a number of striking  linocuts from her time there.

Though  Mayo is better known today as an artists’ model with sapphic  friendships, (most famously Dod Procter and Laura Knight - swipe for a  detail from one of LK’s nudes), she was an accomplished artist in her  own right, with the same training as her better known peers. She  exhibited at the Redfern Gallery among others.