GARMAN, Kitty

1926 - 2011

Kathleen Eleonara Garman was born at St Pancras, London on 27 August 1926, eldest daughter of sculptor Jacob Epstein (10 November 1880-21 August 1959) and his lover Kathleen Garman (15 May 1901–August 1979) who, after the death of Epstein's first wife Margaret, married in 1955. Kitty studied at the Central School of Arts and Crafts in the late 40s under the tuition of Bernard Meninsky (1891-1950) and was taught book illustration by John Farleigh. She married at Paddington, London in 1948, artist Lucian Freud, and they had a son and two daughters, but they divorced in 1953. After her first marriage, her painting took a back seat and only recommenced on her second marriage in 1955, to economist and musician, Wynne Alexander Hugh Godley (26 September 1926–13 May 2010), and they a daughter Eve. Her picture 'Wynne's Dressing Gown' was her first work for eighteen years and was included in an exhibition 'Kitty Garman and Co.' at New Art Gallery, Gallery Square, Walsall in 2003-2004 which for the first time assembled three generations of artists: Kitty, Annie and Annabel Freud and May Cornet, daughter, granddaughters, and great-grandmother, daughter of sculptor Jacob Epstein, daughters, and granddaughter of Lucian Freud. Noted for her delicate watercolours of objects and the environment she returned to life modelling for local art classes in East Anglia where she lived at Cavendish, Suffolk. Kathleen Eleonara Godley died on 11 January 2011.

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Works by This Artist