Biography

Marion Harding

Marion was born in Portage la Prairie, Manitoba, Canada in 1937. She studied nursing at St. Boniface School of Nursing in one of the first schools to use a university curriculum in Canada. At that time becoming an artist was highly impractical and nursing was then considered the highest of the arts. In addition to interests in art Marion was accepted at the Allen Memorial Institute in Montreal to complete graduate work in experimental psychiatry. In 1959 she travelled to Europe and instead of returning to Canada was offered work in Dr. Ernst Blumberg's radium practice.

Dr. Ernst Friedrich and Marion Blumberg - 1961

It was actually through her first husband that Marion came into contact with Pablo Picasso and spent a summer at Nimes going to bull-fights. Through him also she became a model for the British painter H. Andrew Freeth, R.A. who had become reknowned for his famous portraits of Somerset Maugham and Yeats as well as winning the prestigious Prix de Rome. Later, she was painted by the Hungarian artist Arthur Pan who had achieved fame for his superlative portrait of Sir Winston Churchill. Through her first husband, Ernst Blumberg, she met his uncle Hugo Perls of the Perls Galleries who was a very helpful influence.

After raising a family, she has two grown-up children, she completed a degree in art and then followed up with curatorial work before finally being able to devote herself to full-time painting. Many of those who have collected her work find it not only ironic that her life has always been intertwined with art over the last few decades, in different roles, but also that much of her past experience as a model and her personal knowledge of several celebrated artists comes through within her work.

As can be seen in the following galleries, she is very comfortable to re-work a diversity of styles and contexts, occasionally with satirical references to the work of other artists fusing them into a uniquely symbolic yet immediate language of her own with a multiplicity of referential coordinates for the viewer. Perhaps it is this quality that makes Marion Harding so collectable. Her work can now also be viewed online at the SAATCHI Gallery and purchased through SAATCHI Saleroom Online.

The Saatchi Gallery

Saatchi Saleroom Online

Marion Blumberg (Harding)

Arthur Pan 1962

Professor Arthur Pan - The Missing Portrait

Although little seems to have been written about Professor Arthur Pan personally, or of his career, he painted much more than is readily known. An outstanding example of his work is the portrait of the late Dr. Jacob Moritz Blumberg - distinguished German surgeon and gynaecologist, renowned for his pioneering work in pre-natal clinics and creator of the diagnostic sign that bears his name for rebound tenderness. What is less known are his humanitarian achievements on behalf of World War I POWs for the prevention of typhus.

The Arthur Pan painting of Dr. Jacob Moritz Blumberg has disappeared and its whereabouts are unknown. It belongs in a Berlin museum or the Royal College of Surgeons in London.

Portrait of Marion Harding

Painted by James Huctwith in Vancouver (1993)

Oil on Canvas portrait of Marion painted by the Canadian artist James Huctwith in 1993 in Vancouver.

Sir Winston Churchill

Arthur Pan 1943

Marion Blumberg (Harding) - Series of 5

H.A. Freeth - Royal Academician

Grandma and the boys in Trafalgar Square

H.A. Freeth

H. Andrew Freeth RA PRWS (1912-1986)

By permission of the Trustees of the Royal Society of Painters in Water-Colours. From the Dipolma Collection

Freeth was taught at Birmingham College of Art, from which he won the Prix de Rome, later becoming an Official War Artist during World War II. Also a distinguished etcher, his portraits of the famous, including W. Somerset Maugham and several prominent politicians, have probably brought him most to public attention. Sometimes reflecting Freeth's characteristic wit, his individualistic watercolours of figures, scenes and landscapes, painted with a broad brush and ink outlines, have long been popular. The apparent ease of execution conceals excellent painting technique and fine draughtsmanship.

Freeth was elected to the Royal Society of Painters in Water-Colours in 1948, and was President from 1974 to 1976. The RWS is the oldest and probably still the most active association of watercolourists in the world. The Society organises a broad range of exhibitions and events at its Bankside Gallery, on the southern shore of the Thames, as well as around Britain and overseas. The Friends of the RWS is a lively association of interested individuals and companies.

The above painting is illustrated in The Glory of Watercolour, The Royal Watercolour Society Diploma Collection by Michael Spender - Published by David & Charles.