Cecil Higgs

Last updated

Cecil Higgs
Born
Cecil Marcia Higgs

(1898-06-28)28 June 1898
Died16 June 1986(1986-06-16) (aged 87)
OccupationArtist
Parent(s)Clement Higgs and Florence Morgan

Cecil Higgs (28 June 1898, Thaba Nchu, Orange Free State - 16 June 1986, Cape Town, South Africa) was a South African artist. She was the third child and second girl of the five children of Clement Higgs and his wife Florence. In 1912, Higgs's father died at the age of 50. In 1916, Higgs became a boarder at the Wesleyan Girls' High School (now Kingswood College) in Grahamstown. Her oldest brother, Clement jr., was killed in 1916 in World War I. Higgs briefly enrolled in the Grahamstown School of Art [1] in 1918, however in 1920 she sailed to England and stayed abroad for 13 years. She trained in London at the Byam Shaw School of Art, at Goldsmiths' College and, from 1926, at the Royal Academy of Arts. Higgs was called back to South Africa, however, due to the illness of her mother, who died in 1934. Higgs held her first solo exhibition in the Domestic Science hall of Stellenbosch University in 1935, meeting the painter Wolf Kibel and the sculptor Lippy Lipshitz. In 1938, she held a joint exhibition with Rene Graetz, Maggie Laubser and Lippy Lipshitz. In 1938 she returned to Paris, however she left due to World War II. Higgs joined the New Group which was revolting against tradition forms of art. In 1939, Higgs began a lifelong friendship with English painter John Dronsfield. In 1953, she held her only solo exhibition in the Orange Free State. Higgs eventually settled in Sea Point, however the influence of the sea in her paintings led to her label as a marine painter. In 1964, she built a house in Onrust. Higgs was eventually diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease, and in 1984 she moved to Protea Park Nursing Home, where she died on 16 June 1986.

In 1964, Higgs was awarded the gold medal of the Suid-Afrikaanse Akademie van Wetenskap en Kuns.

Related Research Articles

Robert Hodgins was an English painter and printmaker.

Olive Cotton Australian photographer (1911–2003)

Olive Cotton was a pioneering Australian modernist female photographer of the 1930s and 1940s working in Sydney. Cotton became a national "name" with a retrospective and touring exhibition 50 years later in 1985. A book of her life and work, published by the National Library of Australia, came out in 1995. Cotton captured her childhood friend Max Dupain from the sidelines at photoshoots, e.g. "Fashion shot, Cronulla Sandhills, circa 1937" and made several portraits of him. Dupain was Cotton's first husband.

Henrietta Mary Shore was a Canadian-born artist who was a pioneer of modernism. She lived a large part of her life in the United States, most notably California.

Susan Macdowell Eakins American photographer (1851–1938)

Susan Hannah Macdowell Eakins was an American painter and photographer. Her works were first shown at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, where she was a student. She won the Mary Smith Prize there in 1879 and the Charles Toppan prize in 1882. One of her teachers was the artist Thomas Eakins, who later became her husband. She made portrait and still life paintings. She was also known for her photography. After her husband died in 1916, Eakins became a prolific painter. Her works were exhibited in group exhibitions in her lifetime, though her first solo exhibition was held after she died.

Wolf Kibel South African artist

Wolf Kibel was a South African painter and printmaker. He was partly responsible for the introduction of Expressionism to South Africa. His paintings and monotypes have earned him recognition as a sincere and gifted artist.

Lippy may refer to:

Lippy Lipshitz South African sculptor and painter

Israel-Isaac Lipshitz, known as Lippy Lipshitz was a South African sculptor, painter and printmaker. He is considered to be one of the most important South African sculptors, along with Moses Kottler and Anton van Wouw.

Moses Kottler South African painter and sculptor

Moses Kottler (1896–1977) was a South African painter and sculptor. He is widely regarded, along with Anton van Wouw and Lippy Lipshitz, as one of the most important South African sculptors. This triumvirate had the distinction of also having excelled at using pictorial media; Lipshitz with monotypes and Van Wouw in painting and drawing. Kottler's work in oils earned him additional consideration as a painter.

Florence Fuller Australian artist (1867–1946)

Florence Ada Fuller was a South African-born Australian artist. Originally from Port Elizabeth, Fuller migrated as a child to Melbourne with her family. There she trained with her uncle Robert Hawker Dowling and teacher Jane Sutherland and took classes at the National Gallery of Victoria Art School, becoming a professional artist in the late 1880s. In 1892 she left Australia, travelling first to South Africa, where she met and painted for Cecil Rhodes, and then on to Europe. She lived and studied there for the subsequent decade, except for a return to South Africa in 1899 to paint a portrait of Rhodes. Between 1895 and 1904 her works were exhibited at the Paris Salon and London's Royal Academy.

Avis Winifred Higgs was a New Zealand textile designer and painter.

Deborah Bell is a South African painter and sculptor whose works are known internationally.

Zelda Nolte South African British sculptor and woodblock printmaker

Zelda Nolte (1929–2003) was a South African- British sculptor and woodblock printmaker.

Gladys Mgudlandlu

Gladys Nomfanekiso Mgudlandlu was a South African artist and educator. Noted as one of the first African women in South Africa to hold a solo exhibition, she was a pioneer in visual arts in her country, for which she was given the Presidential Order of Ikhamanga in Silver. She drew influences from her cultural background and the landscape around her.

Ivy Grace Fife (1903–1976), born Ivy Grace Hofmeister, was a New Zealand painter based in Christchurch and Canterbury. Known for her portraits, her work also includes landscapes and is reflective of life in Canterbury and the South Island of New Zealand.

Margaret Mary Smith British ichthyologist and illustrator

Margaret Mary Smith was born on 26 September 1916 in Indwe, Eastern Cape, a small village on the border of the Transkei. She was an ichthyologist, accomplished fish illustrator, and an academic.

Phoebe Thorn Merritt Clements Taber was a painter believed to have been the "first professional female artist in Detroit."

Elsie Marian Henderson, later Baroness de Coudenhove, was a British painter and sculptor notable for her animal paintings.

Rosemary Madigan

Rosemary Wynnis Madigan was an Australian sculptor, stonecarver and woodcarver who focused on the human figure. Born in Glenelg to the geologist Cecil Madigan, she decided on a career as a sculptor at the age of 12 and studied in schools in Adelaide and Sydney. Madigan won a three-year scholarship to study abroad from 1950 to 1953. She began teaching pottery, painting and sculpture at various schools between the 1950s and the 1960s. Madigan was in a working partnership with the constructivist sculptor Robert Klippel until the latter's death in 2001 and won the Wynne Prize for a carved sandstone torso in 1986.

References

  1. "Cecil Higgs (1898-1986)". Johans Borman Fine Art. 31 March 2017. Retrieved 18 September 2018.

Sources