CHAPMAN, Della

1931 - 2022

As Adella Jean Lythgoe, she was born in Bolton, Lancashire in 1931, daughter of Henry Lythgoe (4 March 1900-1974), and his wife Florence Lilian née Shaw (born 25 January 1901), who married at Bolton in 1930. In 1939, she was living at 82 Dordons Road, Luton, Bedfordshire with her parents, Henry, a cash collector, and Florence. She studied at Goldsmiths College 1949-1953, her tutors were Adrian Ryan and Kenneth Martin (1905-1984), and sculptor Ivor Roberts-Jones (1913-1996). Although she did not study etching at college, working near the subject matter, she drew directly onto a copper or steel plate, using a sharp metal point. These plates are then immersed in acid and ‘bitten', rolled up with printing inks and printed onto paper through an etching press. She married at Sudbury, Suffolk in 1957, Martin Chapman, and now works under the name of Della Chapman. She settled at Syers Farm, Hitcham, Suffolk where a close-up study of nature was of a major importance in her work and from where she exhibited at the Ipswich Art Club in 1959 amongst others, an oil 'Harvest Carts' and from where she also exhibited, both as Adella and Della, at the Royal Academy also showing at Greenwich Printmakers; Gainsborough's House Print Workshop, Sudbury and elsewhere in East Anglia including with the Suffolk Craft Society where she was an honorary member. Solo exhibitions included Luton Museum and Gainsborough's House Museum and Gallery. The Chapman's later moved to Margaret Catchpole's Cottage, Park Lane, Brandeston, Suffolk. Adella Jean Chapman died on 16 June 2022.

Royal Academy Exhibits
from Syers Farm, Hitcham, Suffolk
1977 1420 Summer Fields ’76 – etching & aquatint
         1430 Rose Hips in Winter ’75 – etching and aquatint
1978 1087 Ditch in Winter - etching
1979 1350 Winter Trees – etching
1983 847 Bay Willowherb in September
1985 1458 Bush Faggots in the Snow - etching

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Works by This Artist