The Girl

Today's the day .............................. to rediscover an artist

This is a new member of our family, only known as The Girl, acquired when we were in Edinburgh over Christmas. She was painted by a Scottish painter called Claire Ritson.

Claire was born in Glasgow in 1907 into a fairly wealthy family - her father being in the tea and import trade. She attended Edinburgh School of Art in the early 1920s, where she came in contact with the young William Gillies. This was the heyday of the Colourists - and the likes of S.J. Peploe and F.C.B. Cadell were known to Claire and her family, her father also being a keen amateur artist and much respected etcher.

Over the next twenty years she spent her time between Spain, France and Italy developing her own very distinctive style of painting. At the outbreak of war, her artistic career was put on hold. She joined up as a driver in the 'FANYs' (First Aid Nursing Yeomanry), and two years into the war she married Squadron Leader Pat Burdett. He was killed months after their wedding, shot down over the North Sea. After this, Claire transferred to work at Bletchley Park (the centre of Britain's decisive code-breaking efforts). She was married again in April 1944, this time to Major Vivian 'Teddy' Ritson, but within six months he was killed at Arnhem.

After the war she resumed painting and was an active member of the Society of Women Artists and the Women's International Art Club. She exhibited at the Royal Institute of Oil Painters, the Royal Society of British Artists, the National Society and The Royal Glasgow Institute. She painted until her early 90s and only stopped when her eyesight began failing.

She died in 2005 at the age of 98, virtually unknown in the artistic world of Scotland ........................