Girl with an Earring

Brockhurst was born in Edgbaston, Birmingham. He was such a gifted draughtsman that he entered Birmingham School of Art aged only 12. He then went to the Royal Academy Schools, winning a gold medal and travelling scholarship to Paris and Italy. He held his first solo show at the Chenil Gallery in 1919. He was elected RA in 1937. An etcher and portrait painter, his society models included the Duchess of Windsor and Marlene Dietrich although many of his subjects were given poetic or classical names as titles and his wife and children were his main sitters. In 1939 he left his wife and moved to New York with his young model Kathleen Woodward. He died in New Jersey in 1978. Examples of his work are in many public galleries.