Collage from old stamps, bonds and notes

Mary Adshead was an English painter, muralist, illustrator and designer. Born in Bloomsbury, London, she was able to enrol at the Slade School of Art in 1921, aged just sixteen. There Henry Tonks recognised her ability and arranged her first mural commission, for a boys’ club in Wapping, working with Rex Whistler. This composition was painted in the first year of Bone’s marriage to Adshead, who, although still in her mid 20s was already enjoying considerable success. This painting was included in her first solo exhibition at the Goupil Gallery, and, touchinly, purchased by her father in law, Sir Muirhead Bone. From the same exhibition the Tate acquired ‘The Flood’. In the same year she was elected a member of the New English Art Club. Bone and Adshead collaborated on a number of mural schemes and illustrated books together, but her career was longer than her husband’s and more successful in terms of commissions and recognition. After Bone’s death in 1958, Adshead travelled widely in both Europe and the United States.