Muriel Pemberton (1909 - 1993)
Originally born and raised in Tunstall one of the six towns of the Potteries, Muriel Pemberton attended the Burslem School of Art training under Gordon Forsyth where she was accepted onto the diploma as the youngest attendee ever, aged 13.
She went on to The Royal College to study fine art under William Rothenstein, after a year she discovered her love of textiles and clothing could be amalgamated with her art training and moved to study design with teaching assistants Eric Ravilious and Edward Bawden as well as studying under fellow Burslem born head of the design course, Reco Capey.
She then went onto teach at St Martins College of Art in 1931 to become the founder of their now famous fashion course which has produced many talented and famous fashion designers of the 20th century many of which trained under Muriel as their tutor.
She became fashion editor at Vogue magazine ( for a time) and two oils of a woman were appraised on the Antiques Roadshow in October 2016.
Barewall discovered the story of Muriel Pemberton in 2015 via a distant relative artist Ivan Taylor who also suspects relations to artist Jack Simcock. We also are neighbours to a local pottery manufacturer who is now living in her childhood house in the Potteries.
We are delighted to be able to offer her stunning mixed media works now at Barewall, we are also working with a London gallery The Beetles Gallery who offer a fantastic array of Muriel Pemberton works and who published beautiful limited edition hard back of her works with a her story written from interviews with Muriel Pemberton during her later life.
For more information and artwork by Muriel Pemberton please see www.chrisbeetles.com and please read the obituary written for the independent by Chris Beetles www.independent.co.uk/news/people/obituary-muriel-pemberton-1458928.html in 1993.