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6th January 2022

This 1936 portrait of Louis MacNeice is by Nancy Sharp, then Nancy Coldstream and later Nancy Spender ((women artists and writers whose names change on marriage have been less recognised than women who keep the same name throughout their working life): it's shameful that Nancy Sharp has been forgotten in the history of C20th painting, and it's not just the name change being a problem. It was domesticity, the men prioritising their own work, love affairs, when you read about Nancy Sharp's life in Carolyn Trant's book it's a wonder she did any painting at all.

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