Lot 729: Audrey Cruddas, British, Costume Designer,

Audrey Cruddas, British, Costume Designer, 1912-1979- Red Motorbike; watercolour and bodycolour, signed and dated 1971, 52x79cm Note: Audrey Cruddas was a costume and scene designer, painter and potter. Born in Johannesburg she moved to England. Studied art at St. John's Wood School of Art, Royal Academy Schools and Bram Shaw School of Drawing and Painting. During the war she worked as a 'Land Girl' in the Women's Land Army. At the end of the War she began to design costumes for the theatre and was quickly talent spotted by the dancer and actor Sir Robert Helpmann. soon becoming one of the leading modern theatre designers of the post war period. In the early 1950's she became involved with the dynamic art community which included: John Aldridge, Edward Bawden, George Chapman, Stanley Clifford-Smith, Joan Glass, Walter Hoyle, Shelia Robinson, Michael Rothenstein and Marianne Straub among others. Cruddas lived in Walton House, Great Bardfield, next door to Edward Bawden's Brick House.