Dorothea Braby facts for kids

Dorothea Braby (born October 17, 1909 – died 1987) was a talented British artist. She worked for many years as a freelance designer. Braby is most famous for the amazing illustrations she drew for books. She created many beautiful pictures, especially for a special publisher called the Golden Cockerel Press.

Early Life and Education

Dorothea Braby was born in Wandsworth, a part of London. She grew up in Putney. She was the third child of Percy Braby, who was a lawyer, and Maud Churton Braby, who was a journalist and writer.

Dorothea went to the St Felix School in Southwold. After that, from 1926 to 1930, she studied art at the Central School of Arts and Crafts in London. She also spent some time learning at the Heatherley School of Fine Art. To make her art even better, she studied in famous art cities like Paris and Florence.

Dorothea Braby's Art Career

Most of Dorothea Braby's work was illustrating books. She drew pictures for many books, including several published by the Golden Cockerel Press. This was a very important part of her career.

For example, she spent a year and a half working on their 1948 edition of Mabinogion. This book is a collection of old Welsh stories. For another book, The Saga of Llywarch the Old, she made colorful engravings. These looked like old medieval ivory carvings.

Some other books she illustrated include:

• A 1950 edition of poems by John Keats.
• A 1954 edition of Lord Arthur Savile's Crime by Oscar Wilde.

Dorothea Braby also wrote her own book called The Way of Wood Engraving. It was published in 1953. Her art was shown in many exhibitions. People could see her work in Britain and in other countries. Groups like the Society of Women Artists and the Arts Council of Great Britain displayed her art.

Besides books, Braby also created designs for magazines. She worked for The Radio Times and The Studio. She also did design work for a big company called ICI.

In 1959, Dorothea Braby decided to change her career. She stopped working as an artist and became a social worker full-time. After she passed away, a special exhibition was held in her memory in 1988 at Burgh House in Hampstead.

Selected Works Illustrated by Braby

Here are some of the books that Dorothea Braby illustrated:

• Mr Chambers and Perephone by C.Whitfield, published by Golden Cockerel Press, 1937
• The Ninety-First Psalm by C.Whitfield, published by Golden Cockerel Press, 1944
• The Lottery Ticket by V.G.Calderon, published by Golden Cockerel Press, 1945
• The Mabinogion by V.G.Calderon, published by Golden Cockerel Press, 1948
• Gilgamesh, King of Erech by F.L. Lucas, published by Golden Cockerel Press, 1948
• Poems by John Keats, published by Folio Society, 1950
• Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, published by Golden Cockerel Press, 1952
• The Fearless Treasure by Noel Streatfeild, published by Joseph, 1953
• Lord Arthur Savile's Crime by Oscar Wilde, published by Folio Society, 1954
• The Semi-Attached Couple by Emily Eden, published by Folio Society, 1954
• The Saga of Llywarch the Old by Glyn Jones, published by Golden Cockerel Press, 1955

Dorothea Braby also wrote and illustrated two of her own books:

• The Commandments, published by Lewis in 1946
• The Way of Wood Engraving, published in 1953