Phyllis Gardner

Woodcut by Phyllis Gardner, 1931

Phyllis Gardner (born October 6, 1890 in Cambridge , † 1939 in Maidenhead ) was an English artist, illustrator, non-fiction author and temporary lover of the poet Rupert Brooke .

Life

Phyllis Gardner was born the eldest of three children of the English archaeologist Arthur Gardner and Lady Mary Gardner (née Mary Wilson) of the Irish family of the Mac Dermotts of Coolavin. Her parents lived in Athens , where Arthur Gardner worked as the director of the British School of Archeology ; however, her mother returned to England for the birth of her daughter. After Phyllis' birth, the family lived in Greece until 1896 and then moved to London, where Arthur Gardner was appointed professor of archeology at University College London . A little later the family moved to the countryside in Tadworth , Surreywhere Phyllis' sister Delphis was born in 1900 and her brother Christopher in 1902. In addition to the normal school material, the children also learned ancient Greek , which their parents used as a colloquial language in the family .

In 1908 Phyllis Gardner entered the Slade School of Fine Art , where she met Isaac Rosenberg , Stanley Spencer , Dora Carrington and Mark Gertler , among others . Through her fellow student Gwen Raverat , she made the acquaintance of Rupert Brooke in 1911, with whom she fell in love. There was soon a conflict between Gardner and Brooke, however, as Brooke was a supporter of sexual liberation and demanded an open relationship, which was unacceptable to Gardner. Between 1911 and 1914 there were frequent meetings and also a lively correspondence in which Gardner Brooke assured her love and expressed her hope for a more stable relationship. The liaison ended with Brooke's death from blood poisoning in 1915. The correspondence and Phyllis Gardner's notes on the relationship are in the British Library and were released for inspection in 2000.

After 1918 the family moved several times, but settled in Maidenhead in the mid-1920s, where Phyllis and Delphis Gardner founded Asphodel Press , where they published their own works and those of other artists. In addition to her artistic and journalistic activities, Phyllis Gardner also worked as a successful breeder of Irish wolfhounds ( breed name Coolafin ) from the end of the 1920s, and in 1931 published a monograph on the history of this dog breed, illustrated with her woodcuts .

Phyllis Gardner remained unmarried throughout her life. She died of breast cancer in 1939 at the age of 48 . Her mother died in 1936, her father died ten months after her in 1940. Delphis and Christopher Gardner, who both remained single, moved to Curracloe in County Wexford in Ireland in 1949 . Delphis Gardner died there in 1959, Christopher Gardner in 1968.

Publications (selection)

• Stanley Casson: Rupert Brooke and Skyros , E. Mathews, London 1921 (as illustrator)
• The Irish Wolfhound: A Short Historical Sketch , Dundalgan Press, Dundalgan 1931. New edition 1981, ISBN 0-85221-104-X .
• Delphis Gardner: The Latin Writings of Saint Patrick. Being his Confession and the Epistle to Coroticus. 2 volumes, Asphodel Press, Maidenhead 1932 (as illustrator)
• Alice Brand: the ballad sung by Allan the Minstrel, in 'The Lady of the Lake' . Asphodel Press, Maidenhead 1932 (as illustrator, with Delphis Gardner)
• With Delphis Gardner: Some Great Irish Greyhounds and Wolfdogs from the Past . Irish Wolfhound Club of Ireland, Dublin 2001 (posthumous)

swell

• Lorna Beckett: Phyllis Gardner, her Family and Rupert Brooke . In: The Past: The Organ of the Uí Cinsealaigh Historical Society. Volume 28, 2007, pp. 139-42.
• A. Killykeen-Doyle: Foreword to the Gardners Photo Collection , 2001
• Rupert Brooke and Phyllis Gardner on royalmaidenhead.co.uk