Ithell Colquhoun’s 1926 self-portrait in the Ruth Borchard Collection has been lent to the Penlee House Gallery and Museum in Penzance, for a major retrospective on Colquhoun. Ithell Colquhoun was a resident in Cornwall for most of her professional career, and her painting and writing was deeply inspired by the history, mythology and topology of Cornish landscape. Colquhoun’s self-portrait is just one of five by female artists in the Original Collection.
In the archives exist four letters between Colquhoun and Ruth Borchard discussing not just the self-portrait but also the spiritual and mystical legacies of Judaism.
The exhibition at Penlee House is the first public exhibition since her death, and will show a selection of pictures spanning her six decade artistic career, with particular emphasis on her work on the human in nature. The exhibition opens on 16 January and will run until 19 March 2016.