ART
...and Market Deeping Antiques has more than its fair share of pictures and stories. The painting of a young girl reading a book displayed on your left as you enter the centre has an impossibly romantic tale to tell of a pretty young girl who had been born to Jewish parents in Hamburg but had fortuitously emigrated to the UK in 1938 – the family missing the Holocaust by the skin of their teeth. Eva Mehl’s father was a Polish inventor and by no means impoverished and so was able to send his daughter to Bunce Court in Kent, a Eva Aldbrook progressive boarding school in the English countryside for Jewish refugee children. It was here that the young Eva met and fell in love with Alexander Urbach (afterwards Aldbrook), a Viennese refugee whom she married seven years later. After training as a classical dancer and taking the name Eva Melova, Eva studied fashion and costume design under Muriel Pemberton at St Martin’s School of Art. An illustrious career as a fashion illustrator in the 1950s and 60s ensued. She was celebrated for her confident, elegant style – very popular at the time. She worked for the fashion house Dior and eminent publications of the day including British Vogue magazine, the Evening Standard and the Sunday Times. When the couple moved to Tuscany
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Image: Lee Hellwing
Every picture tells a story to run an olive farm, Eva captured the distinctive landscapes of the Tuscan countryside in her paintings. On her return to the UK she was appointed Vice Chair of Hampstead Artists’ Council in 1975 and exhibited at Camden Arts Centre (1975 and 1985) as well as the Hamilton Gallery (1980) and Ben Uri Art Society (1982). Her work was included in Ben Uri exhibitions: ‘Exodus: Masterworks from the Ben Uri Collection’ (2018) at Bushey Museum, Hertfordshire; ‘Finchleystrasse’ (2018-19) at the German Embassy, London, and ‘Liberators: Twelve Extraordinary Women from the Ben Uri Collection’ (2019). But Eva had left the capital again this time for Rutland in her twilight years and she died in Oakham, Rutland, in the East Midlands in 2020 at the age of 95.
PIPPINS PATCHWORK & CRAFTS Market Deeping Antiques and Crafts Centre, High Street, Market Deeping t: 07951040717 pippinspatchwork@hotmail.com Now Stockists of West Yorkshire Spinners Yarns reared, sheared and spun in Britain. Stockists of Makower fabric, Stylecraft, King Cole yarns and now also stocking Moda Fabrics, Lynette Anderson and Nancy Halvorsen fabrics. pippinspatchwork.com
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