Hester Sainsbury

Hester Margaret Sainsbury (1890-1967) was a British artist, dancer, poet and illustrator.

Hester Sainsbury's parents were Harrington Sainsbury (1853-1936), court physician to Queen Victoria, and Maria Tuke (1861–1947). They married in Marylebone parish church, London on 26 March 1889; Hester was born in the spring of 1890. She grew up among artists such as Roger Fry, Gwen Raverat and the Omega Workshop Group. Her brother Phillip was one of the founders of the Favil Press, and later ran the Cayme Press, for both of which she illustrated several books.

She was trained in modern dance by Margaret Morris. Around 1914-1915, she ran a group "formed to speak and act her amazingly vital rhythmic verse-plays", influencing the development of artistic drama in Britain, and inspiring people such as the artist Maxwell Armfield. Her group was known before the war as the Clarissa Club, which she and another dancer, Kathleen Dillon founded and ran at 71 Royal Hospital Road, Chelsea. By 1914 its name had changed to the Choric School. The whole of the October 1915 issue of Others magazine was devoted to "The Choric School", with contributions by Sainsbury and the poets Ezra Pound, Kathleen Dillon and John Rodker.

Sainsbury became a successful artist and print-maker in the 1920s, being known among other things for using an engraving tool that cut multiple parallel lines rather than the usual one. She made fine art prints and illustrations by engraving both copper and wood. The author Philip Neil describes her engravings as "fresh, supple, and irresistibly charming."

She lived the Bohemian life of an artist; her lover was the Japanese playwright Kori Torahiko between 1917 and 1926, when he died. She married the Vorticist painter Frederick Etchells on 13 May 1932; she illustrated a number of books for his company, Haslewood Books. She and Etchells moved away from London's artistic scene to France House, East Hagbourne, Oxfordshire, which he personally restored, and her artistic career largely came to an end, though she illustrated an edition of Torahiko Kori's works, published in Tokyo in 1936.John Betjeman was one of their neighbours.

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