LAWRENCE, Tory

1938 - 2024

As Victoria Mary Dennistoun, known as Tory, she was born at Chelsea, London on 2 April 1938 and baptised at Christ Church, Down Street, Mayfair on 21 June 1938, she has sometimes given her year of birth as 1940, daughter of John (Ginger) Dennistoun (30 January 1911-7 May 1979), a racehorse trainer, and his wife Nancy Mary née Court (7 April 1909-5 June 1990), who married at Christ Church, Down Street, Mayfair on 13 March 1937. Tory was educated at East Haddon Hall School, Northamptonshire and studied painting and printmaking at Morley College, Westminster. A secretary to Sir John Betjeman (1906-1984) when she married at Inner Temple Church, London on 21 May 1959, John Geoffrey Tristram Lawrence, (21 March 1929-5 September 2012), who from 1971, succeeded as 4th Baron Trevethin and 2nd Baron Oaksey. The couple had two children, Patrick John Tristram Lawrence QC, 5th Baron Trevethin and 3rd Baron Oaksey (born 29 June 1960) and Sara (born 26 July 1961), a former jockey who married the trainer Mark Fitzherbert Bradstock. The Lawrence's split in a public fashion around 1983 when Victoria started a relationship with artist Maggi Hambling and the couple divorced in 1987. Victoria spent her childhood in the downland of Wessex, which for many years was used as her subject matter but she only took up painting seriously in 1980. Moving to Suffolk, she discovered a quite different, more gentle sense of place beneath the bright light of the famous sky. Exploring the landscape around Dedham and Flatford Mill, where Constable was inspired in the nineteenth century, to find whether her compositions were still recognisable. The Victorian planting of willow trees obscure the original view of Dedham Church, but it can be seen in the distance and this richly historic landscape that had inspired Tory's new watercolours. She had her studio at White House, Rendham, Suffolk and exhibited at the Royal Academy and her solo exhibitions included Montpelier Sandelson, 4 Montpelier Street, London; Charleston, West Firle, Lewes, Sussex; Newbury Spring Festival; James Colman Fine Art, Norwich; Thomas Williams Fine Art, 22 Old Bond Street, London and A&D Gallery, 51 Chiltern Street, London. Her work has also been shown at the Contemporary Art Society, the Hunting Art Prize. She had several awards including winner of the Spink Prize for Painting in 1996 and 1998 and Gainsborough's House Museum Drawing Prize in 2002. Lady Victoria Oaksey, née Dennistoun, died on 19 October 2024, aged 86.
Website: https://www.torylawrence.com

Royal Academy Exhibits
from 20 Aldebert Terrace, London SW 8
1984 553 Christmas
1985 1427 Ghost of Innis Farr - engraving
from Dragon Cottage Studio, Farnborough
1993 1151 Two Sheep

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Works by This Artist