Rosemary Rutherford

Rosemary Rutherford was an extraordinary artist and her life was dominated by art and religion.

She studied at the Chelmsford Art School and the Slade School of Art in the 1930s under Vladimir Polunin. This is where she also met Cedric Morris. Rosemary went on to join the Red Cross as a VAD (Voluntary Aid Detachment) nurse at the beginning of World War II. She produced many interesting works during this wartime period, reflecting her experiences in the UK and the Far East. She was given permission by the War Artists Advisory Committee (W.A.A.C) to record her work.

She successfully captured the mood of wartime Britain and further afield and many of her powerful pieces depict nurses, refugee children and convalescing soldiers. Furthermore, her artworks contain a spiritual element reflecting her religious beliefs.

Examples of her war art are in the Imperial War Museum, the National Maritime Museum at Greenwich and the Chelmsford Museum and Essex Regiment Museum. Later in her life she was a notable stained glass artist as well as a painter. Many of her stained glass can be found in Essex and East Anglia.

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  Ceylon World War II. Watercolour. H35cm W27cm.

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  Pen and ink. H51cm, W35cm.