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Marjorie Bates - Forgotten Derbyshire Artist

A charming photgraph of Marjorie Bates as a young girl, taken in the 1890s

Derbyshire-born artist Marjorie Bates at work on a sketch

MARJORIE CHRISTINE BATES was born in Kings Newton, near Melbourne, Derbyshire, in 1886. She flourished as an artist in the 1920s but has never been fully acknowledged as a 'Derbyshire artist', a state of affairs which perhaps arose on account of her family moving to Nottingham before she became known as a painter.

Marjorie Bates was the younger daughter of George and Emily Bates. After the family moved to Wilford Grange, near Nottingham, Marjorie attended the Nottingham School of Art and subsequently studied in Paris. She later travelled widely in Britain and on the continent, and in Rhodesia, where she had relatives.

She was able to live in some comfort without needing to take regular employment, since her father had made a considerable fortune in his unusual business which served the needs of the British Empire - he was a manufacturer of mosquito netting.

In 1912 when aged 29 Marjorie exhibited at the Salon des Artistes in Paris, and at the Royal Academy in both 1912 and 1913, and again in 1919 and 1920. The gap is readily explained - during the First World War she served as a Red Cross nurse in Malta.

She became very succesful and quite well-known to the 'general public' since her work was widely reproduced on postcards, greetings cards, for calendars and as book illustrations. Her preferred working medium was pastel and watercolour and her favoured subjects were landscapes, street scenes and portraits.

Postcards depicting her work can be readily acquired for just a few pounds, but originals have achieved up to £3000 at auction.

She remained single all her life, since the man she had expected to marry was killed in the First World War. When not travelling she lived most of her life at Wilford Grange, Nottingham. One of a number of Derbyshire-born artists whose local links deserve greater recognition, Marjorie Bates died aged 76 in 1962.

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County:  Derbyshire

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