Averil Burleigh


Averil Mary Burleigh born Averil Mary Dell was a British painter based in Sussex. She was known for painting in egg tempera with the subject usually involving a central figure. Her husband and daughter also painted but she is the best regarded.

Life

Burleigh, then Averil Dell, was born in 1883 in Hassocks and she studied at Brighton School of Art. She later specialised in egg tempera painting with the subject usually involving a central figure. She and her husband Charles worked as artists in Hove and Sussex. They had a house specially designed for painting and their daughter Veronica, who would also be a notable artist, was born there in 1909. In 1911 she illustrated a book of John Keats' poetry. One critic thought the illustrations too "fairy tale", but a later commentator, Kostas Boyiopoulos, considers her illustration for one poem as revealing an in depth understanding of Keats words. Boyiopoulos shows some surprise that is Averil's husband who gained more recognition given her talent. In 1913 she was featured in Studio magazine. She seems to have had less training than her husband but she is thought to be more talented than him or her daughter.
In 1927 Thistledown by Leolyn Louise Everett was published including illustrations by Burleigh. She features in paintings by her husband.
Her son died aged 18 and she became very ill in the 1940s. She died in 1949. Shortly before she died, Burleigh was elected an associte of the Royal Watercolour Society and throughout her career also exhibited at the Royal Academy in London, with the Society of Women Artists, the Royal Cambrian Academy and also the Sussex Women's Art Club. She has paintings in the Ulster Museum and the museum in Brighton and Hove has paintings of her by both her husband and her daughter.