Dorothy Margaret Tyas Colles was born in Cairo, Egypt, on 14 January 1917. Her father, William Morris Colles, was a scientist and medical school professor employed by the Egyptian government. The family immigrated to England when her father retired, settling in Surrey. Colles trained at Westminster School of Art and subsequently as a post-graduate at St Martin's School of Art in London. She settled permanently in London in the early 1950s and established herself as a freelance portrait artist, specialising in portraits of children. Dorothy Margaret Tyas Colles died in Petersfield, Hampshire, England, on 12 November 2003.
Painter and draughtswoman Dorothy Margaret Tyas Colles was born in Cairo, Egypt, on 14 January 1917. Her father, William Morris Colles, was a forensic scientist and medical school professor employed by the Egyptian government; she took her middle name Tyas from her mother, Margaret Elizabeth Tyas. Colles grew up within Cairo's British expatriate community. When her father retired and the family returned to England, they settled in Ashtead, Surrey, where she showed early artistic promise, winning a prize in 1934 at the age of sixteen, awarded by Princess Louise. She subsequently trained at Westminster School of Art in London, where her teachers included the artist and wood-engraver John Farleigh, and the Jewish painters, Bernard Meninsky and Mark Gertler, before continuing as a post-graduate at St Martin's School of Art. When the Second World War broke out, Colles volunteered for the Women's Auxiliary Air Force (WAAF) in 1940 and served until 1945. Stationed first at RAF Tangmere in Sussex, she applied for and was granted permission to sketch activities at the base and drew portraits of officers; her pastel RAF Officer, Tangmere (1940) dates from this period. She subsequently undertook photographic interpretation work at RAF Medmenham in Buckinghamshire, analysing aerial reconnaissance photographs, before being deployed to the Middle East.
After demobilisation, Colles returned to England and settled briefly in West Sussex, exhibiting with the Downland Art Society at Bognor Regis in 1946. She subsequently spent extended periods in the Middle East, working for the Egypt Exploration Society and for the Jordanian government. During this time, she also visited Cyprus, where she painted watercolours of the island's villages, harbours and monasteries. By the early 1950s she had returned to London and established a studio in Chelsea, building a reputation as a freelance portrait artist working in oil, pastel and pencil.
Colles became a member of the Pastel Society, where she exhibitied regularly in the 1970s (and was also the Hon. treasurer). She also showed work with the Royal Society of Portrait Painters and the Chelsea Art Society, and at the Royal Academy Summer Exhibitions between 1959 and 1971. She held a solo exhibition at Leighton House, London, in 1962, and in 1968 and 1969 participated in the Robert Kennedy Memorial Art Exhibitions, a government-backed initiative to promote British painting in the USA, in New York, Los Angeles, Palm Beach and Philadelphia; her paintings Breakfast Time and Play Time, shown as part of these export shows, were described by the Illustrated London News as 'soft, gentle and innocent'. She named as primary influences the pastelists, Chardin, Degas, La Tour and Angelica Kaufmann, alongside Augustus John, Rubens and Ingres as draughtmen. At the Pastel Society's 85th annual exhibition at The Mall Galleries in 1984, a critic in The Field described her portraiture as 'perceptive'. She published two books: Portraying Children (1956), a practical guide to painting children, and, in 1971, Christian Symbols Ancient and Modern, co-authored with Heather Child, the artist and calligrapher who was her lifelong companion. Colles was awarded the MBE. In the UK public domain, her work is represented in the collection at Tenterden Town Hall and her wartime drawings, including RAF Officer, Tangmere 1940, are preserved at the Tangmere Military Aviation Museum in West Sussex, where a dedicated section of the permanent display is devoted to her work. Dorothy Colles died in Petersfield, Hampshire on 12 November 2003. The Ben Uri Research Unit welcomes contributions from researchers or family members who may have further biographical information.
Michal Mel
Consult items in the Ben Uri archive related to [Dorothy Colles]
Publications related to [Dorothy Colles] in the Ben Uri Library