KEAN, CISSIE (British, 1871-1961)

Cissie Kean was in Paris, studying at the Académie Julian, in 1906.
The work of André Lhote and Jean Marchand influenced her painting during this first Paris period.
Before the Great War, Kean travelled extensively to Italy, Spain and Brazil, meticulously recording her changing surroundings in her sketchbooks, which she then used to work into watercolours and oil paintings.
During the First World War she returned to her family in London, setting up a studio and travelling around England with other women artists; 1916-19 she found herself painting in Chipping Campden with New Zealand artist Frances Hodgkins.
After the war, Kean travelled back and forth between London and Paris, with breaks in the Mediterranean. During the 1920s she was working under Lhote again, exploring the human figure through the cubist style, and was also attracted to the purism of Léger and Ozenfant.
Kean exhibited her work at the New English Club, London, in 1921 and again in 1922. She also showed at the Three Arts Club, London during the inter war years.