Seeking portraits of Thelma Hulbert

Thelma Hulbert by Eileen Tweedy, Holland Park, 1960s

The following call for information from Deborah Smith, Thelma Hulbert Gallery Officer, Plymouth University/Kingston University:

I am researching the life of the painter Thelma Hulbert (1913-1995), and I am attempting to trace a portrait painted by Elsie Few (wife of Claude Rodgers) titled ‘Thelma Painting at the Euston Road School’. The painting may be ascribed to Elsie Rodgers.

Thelma Hulbert by Victor Pasmore (1908-1998), private collection

The only information I have on this portrait is from a small paragraph on Elsie Few (Elsie Rogers, Claude Rogers’ wife) found on www.artfortune.com which mentions it: “Few’s portrait Thelma Painting at the Euston Road School (1938) is likely to be a painting of Thelma Hulbert.”

The portrait-model side of Thelma’s early life is very interesting, not least because she pretty much refused to paint figurative subjects herself thereafter. I have traced three other portraits of Thelma, by Victor Pasmore (right, private collection), Edward Le Bas, and Sylvia Melland. If anyone can point me towards others I would be most grateful. Thelma was a stand-in model at the Euston Road School whilst studying with them and serving as their secretary. This means there may also be unidentified portraits of Thelma by other students and tutors from the school. Thelma later became a highly regarded (if now sadly overlooked) painter in her own right, exhibiting at the Whitechapel, Redferns, and the Marlborough-Gerson Gallery, New York.

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