1 June 2017

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This is Helen Binyon’s Royal College of Art ‘MemoryBook’ in 1924 when she was 22. The skill and deftness and humour of these young women, Tirzah and Helen, is unbelievable. There is a marvellous timelessness about this watercolour e.g. the girl in Oxford Street or Peggy Angus sketching in Hampstead Lane. It sounds a bit shrill and annoyingly feminist, but why oh why aren’t the women in Ravilious’s ‘set’ as well known as him?! Well we know why. And one day, not so far off, Tirzah will have an exhibition of her own, and so will Helen. (Please delete the words ‘dream on’ should they spring to mind.)