2016 June & July Artwork of the Month

Still Life with Flowers

Artist: Ethel Sophia Cheeswright (1874-1977)

Medium: Watercolour on paper

Status: permanent collection

Ethel Sophia Cheeswright was the daughter of Frederick Cheeswright, owner of the Channel Island Shipping Company. She was educated at Ladies College and later went on to study art. In 1892 Cheeswright moved to Sark and lived there all her life, apart from during the German Occupation. As she was English born, she was deported to the German internment camp at Biberach.

While interned, Cheeswright continued to paint, often conjuring up images of the Sark coastline and painting from memory. This was a subject she was well known for which makes this still life painting with flowers rather unusual and not typical of her work.

This watercolour, together with two other paintings by Cheeswright were donated to the Museum this year by Hans-Georg Hoch, who had acquired the paintings directly from the artist during a visit to Guernsey in the 1960s.