Florence Hess. "Wetherby". Staithes Artist Oil Painting.

Artist: Florence Adelina Hess WIAC (1891-1974). Member of the Staithes Group of Artists.

Title: "Wetherby". Oil on panel. Date circa 1930. Provenance: From the collection of Doris Bilbrough (nee Sykes), cook to the Hess household, thence by descent.

Size: 8 1/2"x 10 1/2". Framed size: 11 3/4"x 13 3/4".

Now cleaned and framed and in very good ready to hang condition. Free UK delivery.

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Doris Bilbrough (née Sykes), the vendor’s great grandmother, served as cook in the Hess household in Leeds in the early 20th century, and her daughter spent a great deal of time at her workplace, becoming an informal companion to the young Florence Hess. According to family history, the pair stayed in regular contact, and Florence gave her friend numerous paintings over the years to mark special occasions, including her wedding. Born in Leeds, Florence Adelina Hess (1891-1974) studied at Leeds College of Art under tutor Mark Senior (1862-1927), a leading member of the flourishing Staithes School of artists who congregated at the picturesque fishing village on the North Yorkshire Coast. The Staithes artists shunned the academic painting tradition, instead taking inspiration from the French Impressionists, painting en plein air and capturing the lives of everyday people. As Senior’s most notable pupil and assistant and having accompanied him on numerous painting trips to Staithes and the Continent, the influence of Senior’s free-flowing and spontaneous style is evident in Hess’s own work, particularly her liberal use of azure. She later became a member of the Fylingdales Group based on the North Yorkshire Moors, and in 1928 visited the Cornish artists colony in St. Ives.