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 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 finely coloured etching and aquatint by Thornton and shows the interior of the church at Segovia in Spain. It is signed and dated 1979 below. It comes from an edition of 150 prints - and this one has been edition numbered 102 by the artist.
Between 1975-85 she made regular trips to Spain, France, and Italy in search of Romanesque material for her etchings. During this period Thornton also made prints of both Romanesque and Gothic sculpture and ornamentation in English ecclesiastical buildings.
It comes from a series of stylized church interiors that she was producing in the 1980s.
It is being sold UNFRAMED and is printed on a good quality sheet of Arches paper.
The image measures: 62 x 39.5 cm. So a rather large print!
It is in good condition with no issues.
Fair price for this sought-after artist - please see my other Thornton prints on offer in my Iconic Edinburgh online shop.