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Louisa Puller

Louisa Puller (1884-1964) was a British artist who contributed works to both the Recording Britain scheme and to the War Artists' Advisory Committee during the Second World War.

Early life and education

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Holborn Viaduct and the City Temple, London (Art.IWM ART LD 1691) (1941)

Puller was the daughter of Charles and Emmeline Giles-Puller.[1] In 1897, she won a prize for a Study of a Tree at the Hertfordshire Arts Society exhibition; she gave her address as Youngsbury, Ware.[2] She studied mathematics at Girton College, Cambridge, graduating with a BA in 1907.[3][4] Puller was active in the suffrage movement, being secretary of the East Hertfordshire National Union of Women's Suffrage Societies.[5][6][3] During World War I, she worked as a land girl, and gave talks on the subject of women working on farms.[3][7]

Artistic career

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Puller appears to have been an amateur artist, with no record of having a professional artistic career.[8][9] She was a member of the Society of Scribes & Illuminators, and was appointed honorary secretary when the society was founded in 1921.[10] In 1926, she designed a number of panels for an illustrated, limited edition book about Wilthamstow and Highham,[11] and also did the calligraphy and illuminations for a story by Cecil Headlam that was published in the Christmas edition of The Sphere.[12] In 1940, Puller had one work shown in a Royal Academy exhibition;[13] the painting, "Winter Landscape", was among those that were also exhibited in Eastbourne, where it was described as "of outstanding merit."[14] In 1947, she held an exhibition of watercolours, mostly views of Derbyshire, at the Derby Art Gallery.[15] In 1950, she had work in an annual show of the Royal Society of British Artists.[16]

Puller travelled widely throughout England during World War Two on behalf of the Recording Britain project of war artists,[13] depicting the impact of war in at least nine different counties; she was among the most prolific artists employed by the scheme. In a review of the second exhibition of Recording Britain at the National Gallery in 1942, she was described as a "new discovery".[17] For Recording Britain, Puller was sent at short notice to the village of Sudbourne in Suffolk, arriving just hours before it was appropriated for tank training by the British Army and the local population departed. Her other contributions included six studies of Tetbury in Gloucestershire.[8] The War Artists' Advisory Committee, WAAC, purchased two watercolours by Puller of bomb damage in the City of London.[18][19]

Puller's watercolours were included in travelling exhibitions of the Recording Britain project in the 1940s,[17][20] 1980s[21] and 1990s.[22] They were also reproduced in books of the Recording Britain project published in the 1940s,[23] 1990[8] and in 2011.[9]

Collections

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Most of her work for Recording Britain is now part of the collection of the Victoria & Albert Museum, while the Imperial War Museum holds the paintings purchased from her by WAAC. Other works are held by the Potteries Museum & Art Gallery, Hanley (a watercolour of Bethesda Chapel and the Bell Pottery bottle kilns which formerly stood on the site of the museum),[24][21] and the Athelstan Museum, Malmesbury.[25]

Death

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In March 1964, Puller died at her home in Chelsea of coal gas poisoning due to inadequate ventilation.[26]

References

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  1. ^ "Obituary. Miss L. Puller". Chelsea News and General Advertiser. 3 April 1964. p. 5. Retrieved 18 August 2025.
  2. ^ "Arts & Crafts Exhibition at St. Albans". Hertfordshire Mercury. 5 June 1897. p. 6. Retrieved 19 August 2025.
  3. ^ a b c "Louisa Puller, Suffragette". Herts Memories. 2 December 2016. Retrieved 20 August 2025.
  4. ^ "Davis historical archive of female mathematicians. Alphabetical list of graduates of the University of Cambridge". Maths History, St. Andrew's University. Retrieved 20 August 2025.
  5. ^ Puller, Louisa (5 April 1913). "'Our Petted Petroleuses'". Hertfordshire Mercury. Hertford, Hertfordshire, England. p. 4. Retrieved 20 August 2025.
  6. ^ "Liberal Women Disappointed". Hertfordshire Mercury. Hertford, Hertfordshire, England. 1 February 1913. p. 5. Retrieved 20 August 2025.
  7. ^ "Women on the land". Hertfordshire Mercury. Hertford, Hertfordshire, England. 24 June 1916. p. 2. Retrieved 20 August 2025.
  8. ^ a b c David Mellor, Gill Saunders & Patrick Wright (1990). Recording Britain A Pictorial Domesday of pre-war Britain. David & Charles. ISBN 0-7153-9798-2.
  9. ^ a b "Book review: Recording Britain". Country Life. 4 November 2011. Archived from the original on 16 May 2017. Retrieved 12 April 2017.
  10. ^ "Artistic Lettering. The Society of Scribes". The Daily Telegraph. London, England. 21 April 1924. p. 7. Retrieved 18 August 2025.
  11. ^ Gill Saunders, ed. (2011). Recording Britain. V&A Publishing. ISBN 978-1-85177-661-0.
  12. ^ Headlam, Cecil (22 November 1926). "The Tale of Count Thibault the Trickster". The Sphere. pp. 10–11, 82. Retrieved 20 August 2025.
  13. ^ a b Deacon, Deborah A. (2024). International Women Artists and War, 1560-2023. McFarland. p. 136. ISBN 9781476692906. Retrieved 20 August 2025.
  14. ^ H.V.T. (25 September 1940). "Academy Pictures of the Year. Beautiful Paintings at the Towner Gallery". Eastbourne Gazette. p. 8. Retrieved 20 August 2025.
  15. ^ "Derbyshire Holiday - In Colours". Evening Telegraph. Derby, Derbyshire, England. 5 December 1947. p. 5. Retrieved 20 August 2025.
  16. ^ C.M. (21 April 1950). "Chelsea artists. Young unknowns are optimists". Westminster and Pimlico News. London, England. Retrieved 20 August 2025.
  17. ^ a b Gordon, Jan (28 June 1942). "Art and Artists". The Observer. London, England. p. 2. Retrieved 20 August 2025.
  18. ^ Imperial War Museum. "Correspondence with artists". Imperial War Museum. Retrieved 5 April 2017.
  19. ^ Kathleen Palmer (2011). Women War Artists. Tate Publishing/ Imperial War Museum. ISBN 978-1-85437-989-4.
  20. ^ "Hanley Art Gallery. Two Picture Shows". Staffordshire Advertiser. 10 July 1943. p. 8. Retrieved 20 August 2025.
  21. ^ a b Smith, Graham (9 February 1984). "Scenes of the '40s caught by artists". Evening Sentinel. Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire, England. p. 10. Retrieved 20 August 2025.
  22. ^ Johnson, W.E. (15 November 1991). "Galleries. Recording Britain, Durham Art Gallery". The Northern Echo (Yorkshire ed.). Darlington, Durham, England. p. 41. Retrieved 20 August 2025.
  23. ^ "Books of Today". Western Morning News. 14 July 1947. p. 2. Retrieved 20 August 2025.
  24. ^ "Pottery promotion success: Local art acquisitions". Evening Sentinel. Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire, England. 27 December 1962. p. 4. Retrieved 20 August 2025.
  25. ^ "In Living Memory – Works from the Athelstan Museum Collection in partnership with Caerbladon". Athelstan Museum Malmesbury. Retrieved 20 August 2025.
  26. ^ "Found gassed: not enough ventilation, coroner told". Chelsea News. Kensington and Chelsea, London, England. 10 April 1964. p. 3. Retrieved 20 August 2025.
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