ADOLESCENCE

© Richard Woodward

ADOLESCENCE 1932

Gerald Leslie Brockhurst (1890 – 1978)

Details

Dimension
37 X 26.5 CM
Media
ETCHING
Accession number
P2406

Summary

This etching is considered Brockhurst’s print masterpiece and is probably his most celebrated work in the medium. Based on a charcoal drawing in the Wiggin Collection, Boston Public Library, Massachusetts, the sitter is Dorette Woodward. In 1929 Brockhurst met Kathleen Woodward when she was a 17 year old model at the Royal Academy Schools in London. Their relationship developed rapidly and Brockhurst rechristened her Dorette; the pair eloped to America amidst great scandal. For Brockhurst, Dorette embodied his vision of young womanhood. The work displays Brockhurst’s virtuosity in rendering a variety of surfaces, textures and tones. His depiction of a young girl contemplating her image in a mirror has both a sensual vulnerability and sexual yearning rare in Brockhurst’s work.