This is an image of my father (yes, the one holding the book as ever!) and his school friends taken in about 1936.
My own scan from an original copy of the Twenty Drawings booklet which accompanied Felicia Browne’s posthumous exhibition in October 1936.
Sometimes dreams really do come true. Barring accident or incident I will be talking about Felicia Browne – my subject and muse – on Woman’s Hour this coming Monday 18th July.
I’ll be part of a feature on Felicia and be joined by Pauline Fraser of the International Memorial Brigade Trust. We’ll see what live broadcasting brings!
Funny enough approaching Woman’s Hour was one of of our promises to the Arts Council, but with enormous good fortune it has been Tate Britain who have facilitated this for us – THANK YOU Tate Britain! They are exhibiting drawings and letters from the archive to mark the 80th anniversary of the outbreak of the Spanish Civil War on 17th July. The programme will be a good opportunity to talk about the archive and the new display, which I urge you to seek out. Don’t miss out on this treat.
The best thing of all – apart from the opportunity to enthuse about Felicia – has been talking with the show’s producer who also has a connection to the history. In exchanging our stories I’ve gone back to a bank of images of my family from the period.
Juxtaposing the photograph of my father with his friends and Felicia’s sketches of head studies does a great deal to reveal the reasons for my fascination with Felicia’s reportage from Spain 1936. This is probably one of my favourites and also one I sample in my responses. I’m extremely happy to see it on the Woman’s Hour gallery, which also features some of my work.
The beret became an important object in my early research for the project and will feature in the exhibition in more ways than one. Ubiquitous headgear in the Spain of the this time, the beret appears with frequency in the myriad photographs available of the Spanish exiles in flight from fascism.
In looking back it’s been possible to make a wonderful visual connection – my father and his friends with Felicia’s assured sketches.
And once more Felicia has blown me away.
