Gerald Leslie Brockhurst (1890 –1978) was an English painter and etcher. During the 1930s and 1940s he was celebrated as a portraitist, painting society figures such as Marlene Dietrich and the Duchess of Windsor. Today he is best known for his small etched prints of beautiful, idealized women - many of them modelled by his first and second wives. Born in the Edgbaston district of Birmingham, son of a coal merchant, he soon showed precocious drawing skills and entered the Birmingham School of Art at the age of twelve. A pupil at the Royal Academy Schools in 1907, he won the gold medal and a travelling scholarship in 1913, enabling him to visit both France and Italy. This led to a closer study of such 15th-century artists as Piero della Francesca, Botticelli and Leonardo da Vinci, whose work had an abiding influence on him. In 1914 he married for the first time to a Frenchwoman, Anaïs Folin, whom he used as the model for most of his early etchings of young womanhood (especially from 1920 till 1934). From 1915 to 1919 Brockhurst and his wife Anaïs lived in Ireland, where they were friendly with the artist Augustus John and his circle. Though he tried his hand at etching in 1914, it was not until 1920 that he began his career as an etcher in earnest, eventually achieving success as both a printmaker and society portraitist. Brockhurst held his first important exhibition in 1919, in London, and after it was well received returned to live there. In 1921 he was one of the early members of the newly-formed Society of Graphic Art and exhibited with them. Throughout the 1930s he continued an increasingly successful career as a portrait artist, with notable sitters including the film stars Merle Oberon and Marlene Dietrich, as well as the Duchess of Windsor,[2] whose husband commissioned her portrait. In 1937 Brockhurst was elected to the Royal Academy and was able to command a price of 1,000 guineas for a portrait. In the same year however details of his relationship with his young model Kathleen Woodward, whom he had renamed Dorette, were made public after she gave an interview to the Sunday Express. Brockhurst's marriage had previously come under strain in 1922 when his wife discovered his adultery with her sister, Marguerite, and now broke down acrimoniously, with Brockhurst counter-suing on the grounds of his wife's adultery. In August 1939 Brockhurst and Dorette moved to the United States, and he was eventually divorced from his first wife in 1940. In New York City, Brockhurst became both famous and rich with a series of society portraits but his printmaking output diminished, especially his etchings. He produced a few lithographs at the end of his career (around 1945). In 1951, he was elected into the National Academy of Design as an Associate member. In 1958, he appeared as a guest challenger on the TV panel show "To Tell The Truth", which is viewable on YouTube. © 2019. All images are copyrighted © by Gerald Leslie Brockhurst or assignee. Apart from fair dealing for the purpose of private study, research, criticism or review as permitted under the Copyright Act, the use of any image from this site is prohibited unless prior written permission is obtained. 02. Merle Oberon sits for a portrait by Gerald Brockhurst (1937) 1905, Self Portrait of Young Life 1907, Study of a Standing Female Nude 1914, Portrait of Hermione 1914, Ranunculus 1915, Orcella, 1915, The Fan 1916, Ireland 1920, A Galway Peasant 1920-24, Clytie 1921, An Old Corsican 1921, Fabian 1921, James McBey 1921, Nadia 1922, Pepita 1923, Le Casaquin de Laine 1923-24, Chiquita 1925, Charles Carpenter 1925, Corinne 1925, Marquette 1925, The dancer 1925, Una 1926, La Tresse 1926, Noémie (Marguérite) 1926, Study for a Decoration 1928, Anais 1929, Casper 1929, Una 1929, Viba 1930, Girl in black 1930, Henry Rushbury 1930, Portrait of Nancy Woodward 1930-40, Dorette 1931, Faun (Mrs Constant Lambert) 1931, Portrait of Margaret, Duchess of Argyll 1931, Young Womanhood (Anais) 1931, Young Womanhood 1933, Dorette 1934, Dorinda 1934, Gillian 1934, HEAD AND SHOULDER PORTRAIT OF A YOUNG WOMAN 1934, Jeunesse dorée 1935, Adolescence 1935, Woman in black thought to be a portrait of Miss Sheila van Damm 1935, Zeitgeist 1937, Ophelia 1938, Portrait of a Girl 1939, By the Hills 1942, Head of a Girl (Dorette) 1943, The Black Cloak 1944, Dorette's Sister 1944, The Basque Boy also called Boy with Beret and Fabian 1960, Fruit Basket- Still Life 1963, Basque Boy, Cypriano 1968, Marie France 1968, Self Portrait with Palette Portrait of Mrs Lebus The pink shawl Young lady wearing a hat