Original Watercolour 'the Queen of Clubs' by Toby Horne Shepherd 1909-1993. C.1960. Framed. Provenance; Helen Hale, the Artists Wife

Born in Dundee and educated at Harris Academy, he attended the Dundee School of Art from 1924-1926 and then Glasgow School of Art where, in 1927, he won a travelling scholarship and prizes for portrait and landscape. In 1929 he took the Painting Diploma, winning a post-diploma scholarship, and became Assistant Art Teacher at Glasgow School of Art 1930-1932. A series of portrait commissions brought him down to London in 1933, and he subsequently referred to these years as the most unsatisfactory period of his artistic life. He became a lecturer at Shoreditch Training College from 1937 until he joined the National Fire Service in 1941. He was appointed Senior Art Lecturer in 1947 and remained at Shoreditch until 1954. Thereafter, he had a number of part-time teaching posts, including Ealing School of Art, St Martin’s School of Art and the Sir John Cass School of Art. He retired in 1974. His remaining years were spent producing, as always, an amazing amount of work, but now mainly water-colours, drawings, monoprints etc. rather than oil paintings. He was an exceptionally fine figure draughtsman, and this is apparent even in his more abstract and adventurous work. Provenance; Helen Hale, the artist’s widow. Image size; 21 cm x 15 cm Frame size; 36 cm x 30 cm