At the age of 65, having dedicated her adult life to raising a family, Helen Layfield Bradley reinvented herself as an internationally acclaimed artist and left a lasting visual legacy.
Born in Lees, on the outskirts of Oldham, in 1900, an early talent for art saw her awarded the John Platt Scholarship to attend Oldham Art School at the age of 13. However, the outbreak of the First World War and opposition from her parents halted any budding ambitions she had to forge a career as an artist. Following her marriage to painter and textile designer Thomas Bradley, she spent the next forty years as a wife and mother. Yet, she never lost her fascination with art, visiting galleries whenever she could, including the British Museum where she discovered a love for Persian miniatures, rich with illustrative storytelling.
Helen Layfield Bradley MBE (1900-1979)
"Blackpool Beach"
Sold for £80,000 plus buyer’s premium
A desire to show her grandchildren just how different the world was when she was a child inspired her to pick up her brushes again in 1965. Bradley created a simple, yet effective style of illustrative painting, and she was encouraged in her efforts by L.S. Lowry, whom she had met early on in her new career and formed a kinship with. Using a soft yet colourful palette and simple two-dimensional figures, she illustrated short narrative accounts based on early childhood memories of growing up in the Edwardian era.
Most of her early works focus on the years between 1904 and 1908 and featured a young Helen along with her little brother George, her mother and maiden aunts, and family friend Miss Carter (who always wore pink) on trips to Blackpool, walking in Salford’s Peel Park, shopping in Oldham or day trips to the Lake District. Later, however, she expanded her repertoire, creating fantastical and dream-like pictures based on embellished Bible stories recounted to her in childhood.
Helen Layfield Bradley MBE (1900-1979)
"Ah, Dear Emily" & "Oh, Just Look"
Sold for £33,000 plus buyer’s premium
Filled with charm and quiet joy, Bradley’s work was launched to international fame following the 1971 publication of And Miss Carter Wore Pink: Scenes from an Edwardian Childhood, the first of four books that went on to be published around the world. Following high demand, a series of prints was released, and her witty, simple style became widely recognised. Indeed, she went on to feature in television and radio shows, was the subject of a NBC documentary, and even had her work adapted for stage by the National Ballet. In 1979 Bradley was awarded an MBE, but sadly died before the investiture. Her work now hangs in major public art collections and remain much loved today.
Helen Layfield Bradley (1900 -1979)
"Across Windermere"
To be sold in the Modern & Contemporary Art Sale, 1st March
Estimate: £8,000-12,000 plus buyer’s premium
In March, a charming example of her work is coming up at Tennants Auctioneers, with an estimate of £8,000-12,000 plus buyer’s premium. “Across Windermere” is inscribed to a label on the reverse with the memory the artist is illustrating – a trip to Windermere with her grandfather, who rowed the family and Miss Carter across to visit a farming friend for a picnic and daffodil picking.
