Dorette seated on a sofa

George Leslie Brockhurst studied at the Birmingham School of Art and at the Royal Academy Schools in London. In 1913 he was awarded a travel scholarship that enabled him to visit Italy where he was much impressed by the clear-cut style of early Renaissance painting. The staged compositions and hard linearity of his later portraiture acknowledge this influence. However Brockhurst was also inspired by the work of Augustus John, and 'Dorette seated' owes much to John's colourful sketches of Dorelia. Dorette was Brockhurst's teenage model and eventual wife, with whom he settled upon relocating to America in 1939. Her unclothed form, seated before a looking glass, was immortalised in Brockhurst's etching 'Adolescence', which formed a centrepiece to the National Gallery exhibition 'Mirror Image' (September-December 1998).