What is your tutor up to? Chapter 22: Pauline Rose

OCA tutor Pauline Rose has recently signed a contract with Liverpool University Press for her book entitled ‘Working Against the Grain: Women Sculptors in Britain c.1885–1950’. The book will be published in 2020.

“As an art historian my area of research is British art, and specifically sculpture. My first book, published in 2013, was entitled Henry Moore in America: Art, Business and the Special Relationship. It was based on my PhD thesis which examined the importance of the United States in the career of Henry Moore.

My research for this second book was inspired by the launch in 2011 of a ground-breaking online sculpture database Mapping the Practice and Profession of Sculpture in Britain and Ireland 1851–1951, the first in-depth investigation of sculptors active in Britain and of their related trades. At the inauguration event it was pointed out that women practitioners represented about one third of all sculptors active in this 100 year period, a figure that both surprised and intrigued me.

Having written about probably the most widely known (masculine) figure in twentieth century British sculpture, I wanted to focus on what we might see as his complete opposite, women sculptors who, despite very successful careers, have been lost to art history. The reasons for this are many, to do with their gender, social expectations, financial constraints and chosen style of working. My book will be structured thematically and a large number of sculptures will be illustrated. Most of these are in private collections, or their whereabouts unknown.”

Featured image credit: Pauline Rose, Violet Pinwill, 1874–1957. Oak and alabaster reredos, church of St. Peter & St. Paul, Ermington, Devon. Dedicated May 1911.

Originally published at #weareoca.