Ethel Kate WESTRUP

Ethel Kate WESTRUP ASWA (1923)
Kate
1885
1928

Born in London, the youngest of ten children of Robert John Westrup and his wife Fanny. From a wealthy and well educated family, the artist was originally a painter but became better known for her work as a potter. It is not (as yet) known where she studied, but this may have been in London and abroad.  An interim sending-in address in 1910 for Kate was New Milton, Hampshire for her painting  The Pups exhibited at the RA, and J & G shows her address as St Buryan as early as 1911. In the NAG summer exhibition of 1921 she showed four animal studies, but by 1924 she had turned to pottery and exhibited within the craft sections at the tri-annual shows.

In 1907 and again in 1914, Kate illustrated two books that her sister Emily had written for the commercial children's book market, Doggy Doggerel and Doggy Doings. Houfe lists her as a 'sporting artist' and points to contributions listed below.

She and her sister, Emily WESTRUP (15 years her senior), lived together at Lamorna Gate, and made friends with Eleanor HUGHES and the circle around the Lamorna Valley. Kate partnered Ella Louise NAPER in the setting-up and running of the Lamorna Pottery, in the tradition of Staffordshire potteries of the 18th and 19th centuries, and was a more accomplished painter than Ella (whose great strength was jewellery). Ella made teapots, bowls, vases and jugs, while Kate specialised in studio and figure groups, and especially animals. From 1924 their pottery was always exhibited in the craft section of the NSA exhibitions at NAG. It continued in production as a pottery until shortly after Kate's unexpected death in 1928.

media

Landscape and animal painter, illustrator, potter and ornithologist

works and access

Works include: Mare and Foal (1920); 

Illus: 

Doggy Doggerel by Emily Westrup, illus by Kate, (1907) Blackie & Co

The Rosebud Annual (1908)

Doggy Doings, by Emily Westrup, illus by Kate, (1914) Blackie & Co

Punch (1914 - Hunting)

Access to Work: Penlee House, Penzance

exhibitions

NAG (1920-26) Revival Exhibition September 1920, Summer 1921 (4), December 1924; Dudley Gallery (14); L (13); LS (9); NEAC (2); RA (1); SWA (6); Penlee House, Penzance 1993, Women Painters (Group) 2002, 2003

memberships

ASWA

references

St Ives Times 3 Sep 1920 [from WMN]

Branfield & Naper The Lamorna Pottery (Chap 8)

Hardie (2009) Artists in Newlyn and West Cornwall p297

Hardie (1995) 100 Years in Newlyn/Diary

Houfe, Simon (1996 rev) The Dictionary of 19th Century Book Illustrators, Antique Collectors Club, p345

Johnson & Greutzner

Tovey, David (2022) Lamorna - An Artistic, Social and Literary History - Volumes I & II, Wilson Books