Muriel Grace Mallin
(Chicago 1925-2002 Lowestoft, Suffolk)
Nude in Bedroom, c.1950s *SOLD*
woodcut
Provenance
By descent in the family of the artist;
Private collection, London.
This evocative woodcut of a nude woman in her bedroom from c.1950 is by a little-known artist, Muriel Mallin. She was born in Chicago to an English plasterer who came back to the UK with his family in 1931. Muriel won a scholarship to Woolwich School of Art, from whence she went to the Central School of Art.
Muriel's main claim to fame seems to be the fact that Alfred Munnings painted her on horseback - she was a keen rider, as well as an artist. She and her husband Tom Mallin, also an artist, lived in Suffolk, where she took to landscape painting.
This woodcut so joyfully captures the general flavour of its time, drawing the viewer in to the scene to look at the woman’s surroundings and out the window. It brings to mind '50s bed-sits and kitchen-sink dramas. It's interesting to note that Muriel studied illustration at the Central School of Art under John Minton, a master of illustrative narrative like this.