Silvia Marguerita Fausset Baker was born in Valletta, Malta, on 27 December 1892, daughter of Fausset Maher Baker, a British army surgeon, and Emily Frances Amys. When her father's garrison posting concluded, the family relocated permanently to England in January 1897. She was educated at the Royal School in Bath before attending the Academy of Dramatic Art and subsequently the Slade School of Fine Art. As a classically trained draghtsman, she worked as an illustrator, primarily in pen-and-ink, black chalk, watercolour and egg tempera, contributing to a range of contemporary publications. Silvia Baker died in Bath, England on 12 October 1970.
Painter, draughtswoman and illustrator, Silvia Marguerita Fausset Baker was born in Valletta, Malta, on 27 December 1892, daughter of Fausset Maher Baker, a British army surgeon, and Emily Frances Amys. In January 1897, when her father's garrison posting concluded, the family relocated permanently to England; Silvia was four years old. From 1903 she boarded at the Royal School in Bath for eight years, gaining her Higher Certificate with distinction in Art and a a Kingdom Scholarship. Rather than proceeding to art school, she enrolled at the Academy of Dramatic Art (ADA, later RADA) around 1911. She worked in repertory theatre in Edinburgh and Bristol, before joining the Old Vic under Lilian Baylis from around 1915, performing alongside Sybil Thorndike. The poet Ralph Hodgson, whom she met in 1916, persuaded her that drawing was as much a vehicle for emotion as acting. She subsequently attended the Slade School of Fine Art from around 1916 to 1919 under Professor Henry Tonks, supporting herself by teaching elocution at a finishing school in Esher. In April 1933 she married Athole Hay, an art collector and Registrar of the Royal College of Art, at Chelsea Old Church.
Baker worked primarily in pen-and-ink, black chalk, watercolour and egg tempera. In 1916 she began drawing animals at London Zoo on an almost daily basis, a practice she compared to fishing: one could work all day long and never find an animal that would pose properly and go home with a portfolio blank except possibly for an ear, an eye and a waving tail. Between 1928 and 1932 she served as Zoo Correspondent for the Manchester Guardian under London editor, James Bone and also contributed to The Sphere. A set of animal sketches, Egrets, Fossas, Cranes and Others was self-published as Carnaby Prints in 1924, produced with encouragement from Ralph Hodgson. Her book Portraits in the London Zoo was published in 1925; the Times Literary Supplement described its sketches as admirable studies in technique and psychology. She contributed to Country Life, where a closely observed chameleon study appeared on 2 February 1929, and the Daily Chronicle carried her illustrated feature 'Profiles at the Zoo' on 13 June 1927. Her images exhibit sustained attention to characteristic posture and physiognomy, rendered without sentimentality. She wrote in 1948 that she was devoted to Ingres and remained at heart a classically trained draughtswoman.
Baker exhibited consistently in London and beyond from the late 1920s. She showed at the National English Art Club (NEAC) in 1929 and 1930, and with the Royal Society of British Artists in 1930. In December 1930 she exhibited at the Zwemmer Galleries (founded by emigre, Anton Zwemmer) and held solo exhibitions at the Warren Gallery from 1931 to 1932. The Sphere reported a one-woman show of child and animal studies at the Zwemmer Galleries in December 1932, and two studies of children were loaned to an exhibition in Leeds by Dr John Rothenstein (later, Director of the Tate Gallery). In May 1933 she exhibited at Hardy's Galleries, Leeds. Following the sudden death of her husband in January 1938, Baker left England in April of that year on an extended journey through Tangier, Jamaica, Panama, Los Angeles, Bali, Java, Singapore, Rangoon and India, returning to England in 1944. She wrote and illustrated two travel memoirs: Alone and Loitering: An Artist's Travel Diary, 1938-1944 and Journey to Yesterday. After the war she joined the Society of Women Artists and the Society of Graphic Art and exhibited regularly with the former at the Royal Institute Galleries, Piccadilly, from 1950 to 1963. In April 1951 she showed thirty paintings at the renowned Redfern Gallery, selling at least sixteen works. In June 1960 she held an exhibition at the Galérie de Bourgogne, Paris. In 1963 a painting was accepted for the Summer Exhibition at London's Royal Academy of Arts.
Baker moved to a nursing home in Bath around 1968, having developed dementia. Silvia Baker died in BAth, Somerset, England on 12 October 1970. Her works are held in public collections in the UK, including the British Museum and the Victoria and Albert Museum.
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 [Silvia Baker]
Publications related to [Silvia Baker] in the Ben Uri Library