In April a new plaque at the Bar House replaced the former one, which was in memory of Fred Elwell RA, but made no mention of his wife, Mary Dawson Holmes Elwell, who was also a very good painter including many Beverley scenes.
Her reputation has grown and grown, owing to the work of the late Malcolm Shields and art historian Wendy Loncaster.
Wendy Loncaster’s book Stepping from the Shadows (2001), together with a Beverley exhibition of 2009, showed how good Mary Elwell was, especially at interiors.
Beverley Civic Society has provided the plaque, and John and Pam Pople, the house owners, kindly agreed to the new plaque being placed on their house, in the shadow of North Bar.
Beverley Civic Society hopes Mary Elwell will become even better known.
Some of her paintings hang in Beverley Art Gallery, where you can obtain copies, and reproductions of several paintings are on the Beverley Elwell trail, with more added in December 2020.
