Peggy Somerville (1918 - 1975): Paintings and Drawings

We are delighted to present a small exhibition of works by the renowned Suffolk artist, Peggy Somerville. We have been lucky enough to put together this exhibiton from a Private Collection and some of the work has not been on the open market for many years.

Peggy Somerville was born in Ashford, Middlesex on 2nd June 1918, one of six
children of the well known artist and collector Charles Somerville. In 1931 Charles
Somerville and his wife Rose Annie moved to Shimpling in Suffolk. Peggy learned to
paint from her father and older brother, the artist Stuart Scott Somerville.

Peggy turned out to be somewhat of a child prodigy and at the mere age of 3 two of her watercolours were selected for an exhibition at the Royal Drawing Society. She carried on painting and age 7 in 1925, her painting ‘Happy Days by the Sea’ was exhibited at the New Irish Salon in Dublin and then went on to be exhibited at a Bond Street gallery. Her first solo exhibition was at the Claridge Gallery in Brook Street, Mayfair in 1928 when she was hailed as a child genius by newspapers in Britain and in the US and every one of the 100 paintings were sold. She studied at the Royal Academy Schools for just a few months in 1939 and gave it up to serve as a Land Army Girl during the war. 

Once the war was over she moved with her widowed mother to be near her brother in Newbourne, Suffolk and after that she moved to Westleton and on to Middleton in Suffolk. From there Peggy made frequent trips to the nearby coast including Aldeburgh and the painted in various media including oil, watercolour and pastels and also produced some wonderful drawings. 

Her beautiful paintings of the coast line in Aldeburgh show a particular sensitivity and captures the essence of the East Coast in a wonderful and honest way.