| Dorothea Braby | |
| Birth Date: | 17 October 1909 |
| Birth Place: | London |
| Nationality: | British |
| Field: | Design, illustration |
Dorothea Braby (17 October 1909 – 1987) was a British artist. Although she had a long career as a freelance designer producing work for several well-known companies, Braby is best known for the book illustrations she created, particularly those for the Golden Cockerel Press.
Braby was born in Wandsworth[1] and grew up in Putney, the third child of Percy Braby, a solicitor, and Maud Churton Braby, a journalist and author who had been born in China.[2] Braby was educated at the St Felix School in Southwold, and then from 1926 to 1930 at the Central School of Arts and Crafts in London.[3] For a time she was enrolled at the Heatherley School of Fine Art and also studied art in Paris and Florence.[3] [4] [5]
Braby's work was mostly as an illustrator of books, including several volumes produced by the Golden Cockerel Press.[4] She spent eighteen months working on their 1948 edition of the Mabinogion.[6] For The Saga of Llywarch the Old, Braby created colour engravings that resembled mediaeval ivory tablets.[6] Among the other books she illustrated were a 1950 edition of John Keats' Poems and a 1954 edition of Oscar Wilde's Lord Arthur Savile's Crime. Her own volume, The Way of Wood Engraving was published in 1953.[3] Braby exhibited widely, both in Britain and overseas. The Society of Women Artists, the Hampstead Artists' Council, and the Arts Council of Great Britain all showed works by Braby.[3]
During her design career, Braby also produced work for The Radio Times, The Studio, and ICI.[3]
In 1959, she gave up working as an artist for a full-time career as a social worker.[4] [7] A memorial exhibition was held at Burgh House, Hampstead, in 1988.[4]
Books illustrated by Braby included[6]
Braby also wrote and illustrated The Commandments, published by Lewis in 1946, and The Way of Wood Engraving, published in 1953.[6]