Dorothy Bradburn

Jul 18 2008 by David Charters, Liverpool Daily Post

SHE disliked the way our local press gives precedence to a person’s place of birth or residence, rather than their achievements – as in the Tupelo crooner, Mr Elvis Presley, or the son of a Kirkcaldy minister, Mr Gordon Brown.

In her own case, she requested, with the utmost diplomacy, that she not be billed as the “the Nantwich artist”, though she had nothing against the splendid Cheshire market town with its noble history. After all, she lived there on Pillory Street.

But the billing overlooked the fact that her paintings had been hung at the Royal Festival Hall, London; the Sadler’s Wells Theatre, London; the Lincoln Centre for the Performing Arts, New York; Queen’s University, Belfast; the Musee des Beaux Arts, Mons, Belgium; the Bluecoat Gallery, Liverpool, Liverpool Cathedral and Liverpool University, as well as other national and international venues, including the Nantwich Museum, where an exhibition of her work will run until August 2.

The delicate colouring and natural fluidity of her style made her a wonderful painter of musicians and ballet dancers.

Dorothy Bassano was born in Cockermouth, Cumbria, the daughter of Harry, an art teacher. She studied at the Liverpool School of Art, meeting and marrying Don Bradford, who worked at the Mersey Docks and Harbour Board.

While he was serving overseas during the war, she worked for the Council for the Encouragement of Music and the Arts, London, which anticipated the Arts Council.

In addition to organising exhibitions, she attended classes at the Central School of Art, while going to concerts and ballet shows.

“Music is the most magical communication of the deepest feelings we have. It is utterly mysterious how it can go direct into someone’s inner being, across language and culture,” she explained.

This sense of mood was emphasised in her book, Rhythms of Life.

After the war, Dorothy and Don raised their family of two daughters and a son in Liverpool.

She was particularly admired for her paintings of musicians, such as Sir Charles Groves and Maxim Shostakovich.

In 1971, she was the official artist with the New Philharmonia Orchestra on its tour of the US and, four years later, was appointed to the same post with the International Pianoforte Competition in Leeds, where she had lived for a while.

Dorothy, who had settled in Nantwich, was widowed in 1994.

Dorothy Bradburn, artist; born April 2, 1918, died June 17, 2008.