ALEXANDER, Catharine Whalley

1904 - 2004

Catharine Whalley Alexander was born at Mundesley, Norfolk on 14 December 1904, daughter of Philip Frederick Alexander, a schoolmaster, and his wife Frances Emma Alexander née Bryan, who married at Hampstead Parish Church on 25 November 1898. Her schoolmaster father was living at 28 Church Row, Hampstead but on his retirement moved to Mill Field, Walberswick, Suffolk where he took up metalwork, her mother was a musician and an artist. At the age of 16, Catharine followed her sister, the letterer Margaret Alexander (9 June 1902–8 October 1997), to the Slade School of Fine Art, studying under Henry Tonks (1862-1937), Philip Wilson Steer and Walter Westley Russell and she designed posters for the London Underground Group 1924-1925. Catharine married at Hampstead in 1925, publisher & writer Noel Lewis Carrington (24 December 1894-11 April 1989) and they had three children, Paul, Joanna and Jane. Noel Carrington was the brother of Dora de Houghton Carrington (29 March 1893–11 March 1932) and through Catherine's relationship with Dora she became strongly associated with other members of the Bloomsbury Group. The Carrington's lived at Hampstead until 1945 when they moved to Lambourne, Berkshire, to farm at Long Acre and later moved to Steyning, West Sussex. A painter and draughtsman, she exhibited at the New Grafton Gallery in 1976. Catharine Whalley Carrington died at Steyning on 4 December 2004.

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Works by This Artist