Marguerite Kelsey
Marguerite Kelsey was a British model for artists. She appears in notable works of art by Meredith Frampton, Dame Laura Knight, and Peter Edwards.
Life
Kelsey was born in 1909 in London and by the age of fifteen she had started her career as an artist's model.In 1928 she modeled for Meredith Frampton is a dress and shoes supplied by the artist. She was renowned for her ability to hold a pose for a long time and in this case she appeared without a corset in the fashionable style known as "Las Garconne". This painting is now in the Tate museum in London and it has been described as the "epitome of modern classicism".
In 1937 she modeled again for Frampton and as a result he painted her with cards as "A Game of Patience".
She spent two decades in New Zealand and return to the United Kingdom in the early 1980s suffering with arthritis.
In 1993, Peter Edwards exhibited in The Portrait Now show. In 1994 he won the BP Portrait Award with Portrait of an Artist's Model who was then in her eighties.
Kelsey died in High Wycombe in 1995.