Vere Temple Explained

Vere Lucy Temple (8 February 1898 – 14 March 1980) was a British artist, best known for her illustrations of British wildlife. She had a particular interest in entomology.

Life

Vere Temple was born at Boreham Manor, two miles east of Warminster, Wiltshire to parents Grenville and Katherine Temple. Grenville Taylor was a man of "private means".^[1] She showed an early aptitude for art, and her mother compiled an album of her drawings, the earliest of which was dated December 1901 and in which "it is possible to spot evidence of the extraordinary 'eye' which was in due course to blossom". From the 1920s her work was exhibited in many leading galleries across the country. In 1932 Temple had her portrait painted by Sir Cedric Morris.

In 1939 she was living in a flat in Notting Hill, London.^[2] By the 1940s, Temple was living at Tollard Royal, Wiltshire.^[3] She died in 1980 in Ringwood, Hampshire.^{[4] [5]} In 1981, an auction of her "studio collection of very fine botanical, entomological, domestic and wildlife drawings, watercolours and book illustrations" was sold in more than 180 lots by the auctioneers Lawrence's of Crewkerne.

By 1947, Temple was a Member of the Royal Entomological Society of London.^[6]

Examples of her art are held in the collections of the British Council,^[7] Manchester City Gallery,^[8] the National Portrait Gallery^[9] and the Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa.^[10]

Books by Vere Temple

• An Artist Goes to the Dogs (1937)
• Baby Animals on the Farm, and How to Draw Them (1941)
• How to Draw Wild Flowers (1942) London: Studio Publications
• Butterflies and Moths in Britain (1945) London: B. T. Batsford
• Flowers and Butterflies (1946) London; New York: The Studio, "How To Do It" Series, no. 33
• British Butterflies (1949) London: Collins, "Britain in Pictures" Series
• How to Draw Pond Life (1956) London: Studio Publications

Illustrating others' works

• Hedgerow Tales by Enid Blyton (1935)
• Hutchinson's Dog Encyclopaedia (1935)
• Insect Life in Britain by Geoffrey Taylor (1945)
• British Garden Flowers by George M. Taylor (1946)
• Some British Beetles by Geoffrey Taylor (1948)

Catalogues

• List of water colours of British plants and trees executed by Vere Temple of Kings Chase, Tollard Royal, Salisbury^[11]

External links

• Vere Temple on Artnet
• Vere Temple at the Database of Scientific Illustrators 1450–1950, University of Stuttgart
• Works at Manchester Art Gallery, archived in 2012
• Portraits by Vere Temple at the National Portrait Gallery, London

Notes and References

1. Census of England Wales and Scotland 1901; see also Census of England and Wales 1911
2. 1939 Register: 4th floor, 5 Ladbroke Gardens, Notting Hill, Kensington & Chelsea
3. Book: The Entomologist. J. Van Voorst. 1951. 84-85. 29.
4. England & Wales, Civil Registration Death Index, 1916-2007 forename misprinted as Vera
5. England & Wales, National Probate Calendar (Index of Wills and Administrations), 1858-1995
6. Book: Proceedings of the Royal Entomological Society of London: Journal of meetings. Series C.. Royal Entomological Society of London. 1947. 33.
7. Web site: British Council − Art Collection − Collection . January 16, 2010 . dead . https://web.archive.org/web/20110604234133/http://collection.britishcouncil.org/collection/artist/5/18121/0/0 . June 4, 2011 .
8. Web site: Collections.
9. Web site: Prince John - National Portrait Gallery.
10. Web site: Vere Temple - Collections Online . Te Papa Tongarewa - Museum of New Zealand . 17 July 2023.
11. Book: Temple, Vere. List of water colours of British plants and trees executed by Vere Temple of Kings Chase, Tollard Royal, Salisbury.. en. 182856846.