Valerie Thornton (no relation!) was born in London but evacuated to Canada with her two brothers during the war. She returned to London in 1944 and went on to study at the Byam Shaw School of Drawing and Painting in 1949.
She continued her studies at the Regent Street Polytechnic School of Art. In 1954 she went to Paris where she studied printmaking under Stanley William Hayter, and it was at this time that she acquired her first etching press.
In 1955, she succeeded Howard Hodgkin as an assistant art teacher at Charterhouse School and in 1965 she became a founding member of the Print Makers Council. She then became a Fellow of the Royal Society of Painters-Etchers and Engravers in 1970.
Thornton is regularly exhibited in London and America. Her work is in many public collections - including the Tate Gallery, the V&A, London, and the Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge - outside of the UK her work is represented in the Museum of Modern Art, New York, the Boston Museum of Fine Arts and the Bibliotheque Nationale, Paris.
This is a fine-coloured etching and aquatint by Thornton and shows a hillside village at Navarre.
Navarre is an autonomous region of northern Spain, officially known as the Comunidad Foral de Navarra (“Regional Community of Navarra”). The area is bordered by France to the north and by the autonomous communities of the Basque Country to the west, Aragon to the east and south, and La Rioja to the southwest. The province would have inspired Thornton with its stunning ancient buildings, and beautiful landscape setting, full of forests and mountains. There are nearly 900 smaller towns and villages in Navarre, two-thirds of them with fewer than 100 people.
The print is signed and dated 1977 below. It comes from an edition of 150 prints - and this one has been edition numbered 122 by the artist.
It is being sold UNFRAMED and this has been taken into account with the pricing.
It is printed on a good quality sheet of Arches paper. The image size is 30 x 47.3 cm - so a nice large size. It is in good condition with no issues.
A fair price for a lovely large work by this sought-after artist.
UK POSTING ONLY. This will be with Parcelforce Recorded post and cost £10 - this will be applied to your order at checkout.