Daphne Reynolds

Daphne Reynolds ( Dent; 12 January 1918 – 12 December 2002) was an English printmaker in mezzotint and painter. She began painting full-time in 1950, with her earliest works produced from watercolours and later oil. One of her painting was selected by Harold Wilson, the Prime Minister, to be hung as a decoration in his study in 10 Downing Street. Reynolds became known for her studying of the arid landscapes of Arizona and New Mexico in 1968 but switched to mezzotint printmaking in middle-age. From 1964 to 1967, she was chair of the Women's International Art Club and was a fellow of the Printmakers Council. A memoir of Reynolds was written and published by her husband Graham Reynolds for close friends of the couple in 2007.

Early life Reynolds was born in Huddersfield, West Riding of Yorkshire on 12 January 1918. She was the daughter of the portrait photographer Thomas Dent and his wife, Florence Nightingale, Haskett. Reynolds was first educated at Wentworth School, Huddersfield. She went on to study at the Huddersfield College of Art from 1934 to 1937, Reynolds joined the local ARP unit when the Second World War broke out, and was transferred to become a teleprinter operator at the headquarters of the Civil Defence Service in London in 1941.

Career Her career as a full-time painter began in around 1950, contributing to mixed exhibitions in London and Paris.

In 1968, Reynolds grew bored while on a trip to Connecticut and hired a car to wander across the United States. She developed a like of desert scenery while producing sketches in Arizona and New Mexico and made a series of small Indian ink and gouache pictures to capture Reynolds' reaction to South America's arid landscapes and sunsets. In 1973, Reynolds went to Australia, Iran, New Zealand and Thailand, producing more sketches. She admired Gross' engraving and painting and collected his works and found inspiration from John Atkinson Grimshaw, Caspar David Friedrich, J. M. W. Turner, Bill Brandt's black-and-white abstract photographs and Hamaguchi's large mezzotints. Reynolds was encouraged by Gross to take up mezzotint, the Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tāmaki, the National Gallery of Victoria and the Victoria and Albert Museum. Reynolds' husband wrote Daphne Reynolds: A Memoir in 2007 and sold copies of the book for close friends of the couple.