GILLIGAN, Barbara Helen

1913 - 1995

Barbara Helen Gilligan was born in London on 3 February 1913 and baptised at St Paul, Wilton Place, Knightsbridge on 2 March 1913, daughter of Lt Col Geoffrey Goyer Gilligan (16 September 1876-4 February 1933), then a major in the army, and his wife Margaret Aline née Tidswell (20 August 1883-14 February 1972), of Needham Market, Suffolk, who married at St Paul's Knightsbridge, London on 6 October 1907. In 1911, Barbara's parents were living at Pettistree Lodge, Woodbridge, Suffolk, Geoffrey, a 34-year-old army reservist and 27-year Margaret, with their 8-month-old daughter Bridget Aline, born St Paul’s Knightsbridge. Barbara was educated at Langford Grove School, Maldon, Essex and she exhibited from Pettistree Lodge at the Ipswich Art Club in 1932, two oil paintings 'Willows' and 'Bottles' and in 1933 'The Purple Bottle' before studying at the Slade School of Fine Art 1934-1935 and she was one of the first pupils of Cedric Morris and Arthur Lett-haines at the East Anglian School of Painting and Drawing then at Dedham, Essex in 1937 and after the fire, at Benton End, Hadleigh, Suffolk where she met her future husband, artist David Carr. In 1939, she was living at The Lodge, Pettistree, Woodbridge, Suffolk with her widowed mother Margaret with three servants and again exhibited at Ipswich Art Club in 1941 'Landscape near Hadleigh'. Barbara and David Carr married at Norton Radstock, Somerset in 1942, and the couple moved to Starston Hall, Harleston on the Suffolk-Norfolk border and had studios at Starston and in London but she continued to work under her maiden name. It was at this time that she also started to collect art and became a significant artist in the Norfolk Contemporary Art Society, the couple had three sons. Barbara was a landscape painter, a member and exhibitor at the Norfolk & Norwich Art Circle 1946-1948, from Starston, and exhibited two paintings at Cooling Galleries in 1943, had a solo show at Leicester Galleries in 1948, the Michael Parkin Gallery, Belgravia in 1986 and Galerie Salamanda, Paris in 1987. Barbara Helen Carr died in 1995. An oil painting of Barbara and her husband David Carr is in the Tate Gallery.

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Works by This Artist