Mary Eastman (1906–1990)
The Royal Hospital Chelsea
[Agnes] Mary Eastman (1906–1990), was a portrait painter. Her parents were the artists Frank Samuel Eastman (1878–1964) and Edith Maud Eastman, née Mair (1878–1950). Eastman trained at the Royal Academy Schools between January 1929 and January 1934 and had two portraits in an RA exhibition of student work in October 1932. The show did not impress the art critic of The Times (22nd October) but he made positive comments on her work, including a self-portrait; her father’s portrait of her appeared in the RA summer exhibition of the same year. She herself exhibited three more portraits at the Academy in 1942–1943. One of them, a uniformed Second World War Land Girl, 1943 (no. 116), is spirited and strikingly coloured: this was last seen when sold at Bonham’s, Oxford, on 14th October 2014 (lot 331).
Shortly after her mother’s death late in 1950, Mary began using her father’s address (Thames Studio, 63 Deodar Road) for exhibiting purposes and in about 1959 moved in with him. She remained there, apparently still working, until about 1970 when she moved to Banff, Scotland. She died there on 23rd January 1990, aged 83.
Summarised from Art UK's Art Detective discussion 'Who is this member of the Robinson family? Who is the artist?', which identified Frank Samuel Eastman as the artist. Information on Mary Eastman contributed by Osmund Bullock.
Text source: Art Detective
