Having trained at the Slade School (enrolling in 1921 at the age of 16), Mary Adshead rapidly proved to be an accomplished muralist. Her commissions included designs for a Wapping boy’s club, in collaboration with Rex Whistler, Lord Beaverbrook’s dining room (not completed due to Beaverbrook’s realization that he didn’t want to be surrounded by portraits of friends he might fall out with), the Victoria Pier auditorium at Colwyn Bay, Selfridge’s fourth-floor restaurant, the British Pavilion at the 1937 Paris International Exhibition and Bank Underground Station. Given the somewhat ephemeral nature of murals, many of these have not survived. However, the first solo exhibition of her paintings took place in 1930, and her work is held in major collections such as The Tate, the Imperial War Museum and the Manchester City Art Gallery. She married Stephen Bone, son of Sir Muirhead Bone, in 1929, the undated work here possibly from the period when her children were at the nursery stage.
Provenance: the artist's family (Exhibited: London, The Fine Art Society and Liss Fine Art, British Murals & Decorative Painting 1910-1970, February - March 2013, cat no. 50)