Margaret Chapman
| Margaret Chapman | |
|---|---|
| Born | Darwen, Lancashire, England |
| Known for | Painting |
| Notable work |
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Margaret Chapman née Duxbury (18 November 1940 – 28 July 2000) was an English illustrator and painter. Born in Darwen, Lancashire, her skill at painting was obvious from an early age and she studied at Liverpool College of Art alongside Stuart Sutcliffe (with whom she competed for 'best painter in class') and John Lennon. Her work was often reproduced as limited edition prints and sold in more than 50 countries.
Her oil and gouache paintings often featured Edwardian street scenes, usually in the north of England and drew favourable comparisons with L. S. Lowry, with whom she was often thought to be a contemporary despite being more than fifty years younger. Chapman's work is often more detailed with many works featuring billboards selling products of the Edwardian Period such as Bovril, Cadbury's confectionary and Oxo. She matched Lowry for prices in the early/mid-1970s, and interest in her work has steadily increased more than a decade after her death.
Well-known works include 'Piccadilly Circus', 'The New Rover' and 'Pretty Polly' with typically busy crowds fascinated with a snake oil salesman or itinerant gas iron seller.
In 1978 she published a book of her paintings called When Steak was a Shilling a Pound, which included her own prose and thoughts on the Edwardian period.
She was married in 1965 and had four children. Her great-uncle was Charles Lightoller, who was second officer of The Titanic and a survivor of its sinking.
While studying at art college and living at nearby Gambier Terrace, she recalled a young Paul McCartney and George Harrison coming in through an upstairs window via a back fire escape to rehearse with her flatmate John Lennon. She introduced Lennon to J.D. Salinger's novel The Catcher in the Rye while they were students in Liverpool, where she was affectionately called 'Duckie'.
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