Lyndra

An Australian artist, born in Brisbane, Derwent Lees studied in Paris and at Melbourne University. When he came to England he worked as a teacher of drawing at the Slade School and travelled widely in Europe. In1912 he took a cottage at Ffestiniogg in North Wales, where he attained intensity of colour and mood in his work. The portrait in oils, Lyndra, showing a woman seated on rocks with a landscape in the distance, was painted in 1914. It was bought by the LACF in 1930. In 1933, in memory of J.E. Town, the LACF also purchased two watercolours by Lees, both of which are entitled Evening, Wales and are undated. Mental illness confined Derwent Lees to an asylum from 1918 until his death in 1931.