Patricia Preece

Born: 1894

Death: 1966

Biography:

Patricia Preece and Winifred Isabel Emery (1890–1972), the niece of the actors Cyril Maude and Winifred Emery.
Dramatist W. S. Gilbert, a friend of the Emery family, had an estate nearby called Grim's Dyke, on which there was a lake some distance from the house. On 29 May 1911, the 74-year-old Gilbert had arranged to give a swimming lesson in the lake to Preece and Emery. The three met at about 4 pm that day, and the young women entered the water before Gilbert. At the subsequent coroner's inquest, Preece stated, "I found that I could not stand and called out and Sir William swam to me. I put my hand on his shoulder and I felt him suddenly sink. I thought he would come up again. My feet were on the mud then. Miss Emery called for help and the gardeners came with the boat." The family doctor, Dr W.W. Shackleton, and Dr Daniel Wilson of nearby Bushey Heath Cottage Hospital, certified that Gilbert had died at about 4:20 pm that afternoon of syncope (heart failure) brought on by excessive exertion. The coroner's jury, meeting on 31 May 1911, recorded a verdict of accidental death. The incident is described in the documentary Metro-land. Newspapers printed verbatim the statement that Preece had given at the inquest, and they described her as a "fair-haired seventeen-year-old schoolgirl." Her father was a named mourner at Gilbert's funeral.
A year later, Preece had changed her first name to Patricia. She was at a finishing school in Lytham St Annes and became engaged to an officer in the Royal Naval Reserve. She returned to London during World War I and lived in Kensington with her mother and sister while her father was serving in the war. She sketched fashion illustrations for periodicals, drove ambulances and became involved with the suffragette movement. Her fiancé ended their engagement.
In 1918, Preece enrolled at the Slade School of Fine Art, where she met a talented artist Dorothy Hepworth, who became her lifelong companion. With the help of Hepworth's wealthy family, they set up a home and studio together. Both studied drawing with Henry Tonks. Preece's early work was praised by Vanessa Bell, Duncan Grant and Roger Fry. In the early 1920s, they lived mostly in Paris to continue their art studies, Preece studying principally with André Lhote. There, they were influenced by the lesbian art world of Natalie Barney's salon. Upon their return to London in 1925, however, they tried to avoid the opprobrium suffered by open lesbians and often claimed to be sisters. They became more involved with the Bloomsbury Group, some of the members of which they had met earlier. They spent summer holidays in Wales or Cornwall where Preece was again rescued from drowning, this time by a local mineworker. Preece had a reputation for happily accepting casual flirtations from admirers, only to reject them when they became more serious. In 1928, Preece and Hepworth moved to Cookham, living in a cottage purchased by Hepworth's parents. The gregarious Preece signed many of the shy Hepworth's paintings and negotiated with dealers to exhibit and sell the work as Preece's, fooling many in the art world, including the artist Augustus John, who declared Preece one of the six greatest women artists in England.

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