The Little Street Market

Altrincham History Society

LOCAL ARTIST EDITH LE BRETON (1912-1993)

OCCASIONAL PAPER 13 January 2011

1

Sam Bone Man in Salford Town The Old Street Market Man

The Silver Jubilee 1977 in Russell Street, Altrincham

2

Edith le Breton

EDITH LE BRETON David Miller

One of Altrincham’s unsung talents is Edith le Breton, an artist who lived and worked in the town and Dunham Massey for 50 years. Edith had a national profile and was best known for her paintings of northern scenes, many of them in Altrincham. They are representational paintings, usually oil on canvas, and generally chronicle post-war life in the north. She also worked in other crafts, painting china and textiles. Edith was friendly with Lowry who took an interest in her work. All of this was a remarkable achievement for a woman who also produced two children and ran a business during the difficult war and post-war years. Edith Winifred Alice Sapple was born in 1912 at New Barns Farm, Weaste, Salford, just off Eccles New Road, near the site of the old racecourse. She was the second of three talented sisters. The farm was large and ancient with a cobbled courtyard, gardens, a pond, and surrounded by fields. Her father Hugh was a policeman from Welshpool, Powys who served as an officer with the Manchester Dock Police. He was an excellent gardener and athlete and won many medals. Edith inherited her love of painting from her mother Edith Primrose (Tipping), who was a lady’s maid to Lady Yarborough and then Lady Powys. Edith Sapple took her great grandmother’s French name of le Breton to use as an artist. Silver Jubilee (top opposite) This is perhaps one of Edith’s finest pictures and took a month to complete. It has very detailed work in the bricks and setts, and tables stretch away into the distance. Edith painted the party in Russell Street in 1977 to celebrate Queen Elizabeth’s Silver Jubilee. Her shop is in the right foreground with ‘Jacksons’ over the window and she is looking out of the shop door window. Her children and dog are included in the scene. She has renamed Rostherne Street on the right as Peter Street after her eldest son.

3

Seedley Primary School, Salford

Edith started painting at six and when she was nine attended Seedley Council (now Primary) School where her name and those of her sisters were on the school Roll of Honour board, now lost. Salford Artist Harold Riley also attended the school. In the lunch time all three sisters took private watercolour painting lessons. At the age of 11 Edith won a prize of money and a silver travelling case at Lewis’s Art Exhibition in Manchester, for a portrait of Princess Elizabeth. At 13 she was awarded a scholarship to Salford School of Art and at 15 sold her first watercolour and obtained a first-class studentship to study for a further three years. Her older sister Doris and younger sister Mavis also won scholarships there. The family showed Edith’s early artwork to artist Dame Laura Knight who advised Edith to “paint the people around you.” In 1933, at the age of 20, Edith married Cyril Jackson. In 1936 she was introduced to Laurence Lowry by the director of Salford Art Gallery, Albert Frape, who gave her much support and encouragement. In 1937 Edith held an exhibition at Salford Art Gallery as an Artist of the Northern School. Edith was always fascinated by the rows of Salford streets of cottages with donkey-stoned door steps and full of highly-polished furniture. The houses were always spotless, and the windows and curtains clean. She was interested in their sideboards full of ornaments with glass drops. The women folk were scrubbed clean with aprons tucked in and their sleeves rolled up. They were always busy, stirring a large pot on the range, laying the table, or cleaning. In 1939 Edith and Cyril were living in Langworthy Road, Salford and at the outbreak of the war Cyril joined the RAF as a Military Policeman. He was injured and was in hospital for a lengthy period so Edith had to provide for the family, which by then included their two young sons Peter

4

and Dennis. She bought blank Royal Doulton china which she painted and sold to Kendal Milne’s store on Deansgate, Manchester. The move to Altrincham The family was bombed out in Salford and Edith bought a provision shop and off-licence on the corner of Pownall Street (now Road) and Rostherne Street in Newtown, Altrincham. After the war Cyril was able to help her with the long day in the shop, 8am to 10:30pm, and again she found time to paint, often into the early hours. In 1949 Frape asked Lowry to choose one of her paintings for Salford Art Gallery: he chose A Salford Street. Edith clearly recognised interesting scenes which were worth preserving for posterity, working from memory, sketches and photographs. Edith’s figures are more detailed than Lowry's and her post-war pictures are often in vivid colours. Edith and Lowry had both belonged to the Salford Arts Club and he wrote to her with encouragement to continue to paint despite setbacks and difficulties. They continued to correspond until his death in 1976. Edith was a member of Manchester Academy of Fine Arts from 1952 to 1966, and her work was shown in their annual exhibitions. She was also a member of the Lancashire Group of Artists. She was awarded a fellowship in 1959 by the International Society of Arts and Letters and arranged an International Children’s Art Exhibition in Manchester for the United Nations. On several occasions she organised international exhibitions of children’s art for the Rotary Club of Altrincham, and she is said to be the first British artist to show and discuss her work on colour television. Edith had exhibitions at the Medici Galleries, London, and group shows at the Manchester Academy of Arts, Lancashire Group Artists, and Altrincham Society of Artists. She exhibited nationally and sold at Sotherby’s and Christies. She is represented in Salford City Art Gallery and in private collections in Europe, the United States, Central and South America, Australia and New Zealand. She judged children’s exhibitions, contributed poems to literary journals and was associated with the Manchester Academy of Fine Arts. She painted a Manchester United match for Matt Busby and the 1972 Preston Guild.

5

Magnolia (left) &The Meadows (right) Thatched Cottages (Basil Morrison)

In 1954 Edith and Cyril moved to High Street, Altrincham and in 1959 retired to Magnolia Thatched Cottage at the back of the Axe & Cleaver public house in Dunham Massey and then to 1 Big Tree Cottages, Woodhouse Lane, Dunham Massey. During the 1970s Edith produced numerous paintings including some for Roger Grey, the last Lord Stamford. In 1983 Edith was a guest at the Women of the Year Luncheon at the Savoy Hotel, in the company of many distinguished women. About 1990 Edith and Cyril moved into sheltered housing in Williams Walk, Newtown, Altrincham, just two doors from where her Russell Street shop had stood. Edith’s sister Mavis Hermione Sapple wrote a book in 1982 covering their early life entitled A Salford Childhood, which is in Salford Public Library. Edith Le Breton, MAFA (1952), FIAL (1959), died in 1993, painting right up to the end. Cyril was a valued member of Altrincham Court Leet from the 1970s and was still attending in his 90s until his death in 2004. Edith le Breton’s paintings Some of Edith’s street scenes have a shop called ‘Jacksons’ and include her sons or grandchildren, and her dog, often in a Salford or Altrincham context. She must have produced several hundred paintings, and for some she wrote a short poem. Her works include: In the Air Raid Shelter (1942) A Salford Street (1949, original at Salford Art Gallery) The Salvation Army in Pownall Street (1950) In the Vatican (1967) The Little Beggar Child of Rome (1970) The Fairground (1971) The May Queen Procession (1971, Stockport, poem on the back) The Pavement Artist (1971) Knutsford Royal May Queen, the Day the Queen Rides By (1972)

6

The Winter Wedding (1972, St Luke’s Church, Weaste) The Pensioner (1972) The Preston Guild (1972) The Bandstand (1973, Stamford Park, Hale) The Procession (1973) Busy Winter Street Scene with Street Traders & Shoppers (1975) Barrow Boys (1976) Sam Bone Man in Salford Town (1976) The Old Street Market Man (1976) The Silver Jubilee Party (1977, Altrincham) A Christmas Market (poem on the back) A Market Day in a Welsh Town A Street in Lancashire A Summer Day All the Fun of the Fair (Salford) Altrincham Market Altrincham Scene Back Street in Manchester Child of Salford Christmas Shopping City Centre Coronation Preparations Come to the Fair Down & Out Dunham Massey Rose Queen Fairground Forbidden Fruit Forty Winks (the original is in Trafford Local Studies) George Street, Altrincham Joe Marbles Memories of Broadway, Salford Monday Evening Monday Morning New Street, Altrincham Newtown, Old Altrincham On Sunday Afternoon Pensioner Pownall Street, Altrincham Salvation Army Schooldays Seen from a Train Street in Salford Stamford New Road, Altrincham

7

Street Scene in New Street Altrincham (original in Trafford Local Studies) Scene in Newtown, Altrincham (the original is in Trafford Local Studies) The Apprentices’ Strike, Trafford Park The Blackbird at Magnolia Cottage The Canal at Broadheath The Evacuees The Football Match The Jubilee Dress (on fabric, held by the Jackson family) The Little Church The Little Park in Salford The Little School (St Margaret’s C of E School, Albert Street, Altrincham) The Little Street Market The Local Derby (Manchester United v Manchester City, for Matt Busby) The Man on the Bus (a finger painting) The Night Watchman (a finger painting) The Old Street Market The Playground The Royal Salford Hospital Pageant The Snooze The Student on the 64 Bus (Rome) The Victorian Flat-Iron Market in Old Salford The Wanderer (a finger painting) View from the Downs Jubilee Dress (right) The Jubilee Dress was painted on polyester cotton using ICI acrylic paint developed in Blackley, Manchester. Until that time textile designers had been restricted by technical barriers which ICI overcame by inventing new dyes. The dress took two months to paint with scenes from the Knutsford May Day procession, and the work celebrated the golden jubilee of the sale of Edith’s first painting at the age of eight. The project followed the painting of a Christening robe which was worn by her grandchildren (Peter Jackson)

8

Edith’s Visiting Card Breton House is 1 Woodhouse Lane, Dunham Massey. Two of Edith’s granddaughters have also named their houses Breton House (Hilda Bayliss)

In the Air Raid Shelter(1942)

Schooldays

The Little Beggar Child of Rome

Edith le Breton plates (in colour) 6¼ ins diameter. Given by Gwen Gray, a close friend of Edith’s, to a close friend in Dunham Massey, 23 Oct 2010 to ensure their reurn to the community. From the top left: 1. Our Patch, Gwen's dog. 2. 16th Century Smoker at Plumley. 3. Pear Tree Cottage (Farm) where Gwen lived. 4. Little Moreton Hall, 5. Church Brow Cottage, Bowdon where Gwen’s mother went to live, 6. Dunham Old Mill.

9

Where can Edith’s paintings be seen? Edith le Breton was a determined and prolific painter who deserves to be celebrated in Altrincham, but we no longer have a public art gallery or museum in which to display her work. The outpatients’ wing at Altrincham Hospital has a good print of The Procession with a dedication of thanks from Edith. The Charles Price Ward has prints of The Procession and The Bandstand, faded but typical of her style. Trafford Local Studies at Sale has three originals in its archives as listed above, previously in Altrincham Art Gallery until its demolition about 1970. Salford Art Gallery holds an original, A Salford Street. Peter Jackson presented some of his mother’s prints, framed by the Ticker Club, to the Intensive Care Unit of Wythenshawe Hospital in 2009. Acknowledgements Thanks to Peter and Enid Jackson for details of Edith’s life and the loan of her paintings and archives. Thanks also to Basil Morrison, who knew Edith and Cyril well, for permission to use his drawing of the Thatched Cottages, and to Esmé Duckworth for permission to photograph her plates. The Little Park in Salford (opposite left top) Monday Morning (opposite left middle) Memories of Broadway, Salford (opposite left bottom) Winter Wedding (far right bottom) The church is the now-demolished St Luke’s, in Weaste, Salford where Edith and Cyril were married. Edith has included her six grandchildren, their dog and their car in the scene. All the Fun at the Fair (back page top) Edith’s sons and dog are in the scene of the annual Broadway Fair in Salford which was lit by hissing pressurised paraffin lamps. The Bandstand (back page below) The foreground for this painting is Stamford Park, Hale with its bandstand, and Stamford Park Road behind. In the background Edith has included her shop from Russell Street with ‘Jacksons’ over the window, and the picture includes her sons and dog. Peter Jackson is in black at the bottom centre.

Winter Wedding

The Procession

11

All the Fun at the Fair (Broadway, Salford)

The Bandstand (Stamford Park, Hale)

12