Mildred Bendall (French/British 1891-1977)
Mildred Bendall made her way to Paris in 1927, where she attended the Académie de la Grande Chaumière in Montparnasse. There she befriended Matisse and Marquet, whose Fauve paintings turned her eye to colour as means of expressing form. Under their influence Bendall widened her repertoire - the traditional, academic-style interior scenes, which she had learned to paint while at the École des Beaux-Arts in Bordeaux gave way to a more liberated form of painting, focusing on the still-life genre.
As a frequent visitor to Matisse's home, Mildred Bendall met with his son Paul, who proposed to marry her. After some hesitation, Bendall refused and returned to Bordeaux, to concentrate on her 'new' painting of form through colour. Back in Bordeaux in 1928, Bendall founded the 'Société des Artistes Indépendants' and 'Le Studio', two movements which gathered young aspiring Bordelaise artists.
In addition to her active involvement in promoting the avant-garde in Bordeaux, Bendall kept in touch with her friends from Paris. In 1937 the Galerie de Paris, Faubourg St. Honoré exhibited twenty five flower paintings alongside works by Kees Van Dongen, Raoul Dufy and Max Jacob. Her success was confirmed with a purchase by the Musée National d'Art Moderne, Paris.
During the 1930s Mildred Bendall found her own individual style, carefully composing her flower pieces, landscapes and harbour scenes with a basic structural insight imposed on her unrivalled feeling for colour.
Public collections include
Musée d'art Moderne de la Ville de Paris, Paris
Musée des Beaux-Arts, Bordeaux
Musée National d'Art Moderne, Paris
Solo Exhibitions
2009, Mildred Bendall, Galerie du Post-Impressionism, Paris.
2008, Mildred Bendall (1891-1977): a Retrospective Exhibition, Partridge Fine Art, London (1-26 April).
1998, Mildred Bendall: Exhibition of Selected Paintings, Watercolours and Drawings, Whitford Fine Art, London (6 -29 May).
1996, A Retrospective Exhibition of Paintings by Mildred Bendall, Whitford Fine Art, London (6 June - 5 July).
1987, Mildred Bendall: An Exhibition of Selected Works from the Artist's Studio, Whitford and Hughes, London (19 Oct. - 27 Nov.).
1981, Mildred Bendall 1891-1978: Rétrospective, Peintures, Société Artistique de la ville de Mérignac, Mérignac (24 April - 30 May).
1961, Galerie du Fleuve, Bordeaux (Studies of Eyzies Grottos).
1960, Peintures récentes de Mildred Bendall, Galerie du Fleuve, Bordeaux (8 - 23 Oct.).
1958, Mildred Bendall, Galerie de l'Ami des Lettres, Bordeaux.
1955, Mildred Bendall, Galerie de l'Ami des Lettres, Bordeaux (3 - 16 Dec.).
1954, Bendall, Bateaux-Bouquets, Galerie de l'Ami des Lettres, Bordeaux.
1951, Mildred Bendall, Galerie de l'Ami des Lettres, Bordeaux.
1942, Bendall, Galerie Chappe-Lautier, Toulouse.
1937, 25 Bouquets de Mildred Bendall, Galerie de Paris, Paris (5 - 20 May).
Group Exhibitions
1961, Cheval, Galerie du Fleuve, Bordeaux; Fleurs, Galerie du Fleuve, Bordeaux; Hommage aux Provinces Francaises, Casino Bellevue, Biarritz.
1960, L'eau, Galerie du Fleuve, Bordeaux.
1955, Le Regard, Bordeaux.
1944, Salon des Provinces françaises, Paris.
1940-1944, Salon des sociétés artistiques de Bordeaux, Bordeaux.
1929-1955, Salon des Indépendants bordelais, Société des Artistes Indépendants, Bordeaux.
1920, 1921 and 1927, Salon des Artistes français, Paris.
1914, Salon de l'Union Féminine, Bordeaux.
1912-1935, Salon des Amis des Arts, Bordeaux.