Veronica Burleigh (1909-1999)

Veronica Burleigh (1909-1999), landscape, figure and portrait painter. The daughter of well-known Brighton and Hove based artists Averill and Charles Burleigh. She won a scholarship and studied at the Slade School of Art 1927-30 under Henry Tonks and became an accomplished portrait painter. She mainly produced portraits until 1970 when she moved to the country, living in Henfield, Sussex. For 20 years she commuted annually to Rhodesia, where she held a succession of 23 one-man shows. The Prime Minister of Rhodesia Ian Smith was among her sitters. Charles, her father, died in 1956 aged 87 outliving his wife Averil who had a fatal heart attack in 1949 aged 66. The glamorous Veronica, who loved fast cars and gardening, never married but, after an adventurous life, returned to Sussex where she died in 1998 at the age of 89.                      

Exhibitions Include:
New English Art Club; Royal Academy; Royal Institute of Painters in Watercolour; Royal Institute of Oil Painters; Society of Women Artists.