Gertrude Mary Powys

Gertrude Mary Powys (6 October 1877 – 23 April 1952) was a British artist, notable for her portraits of members of the literary Powys family, including John Cowper Powys and Llewelyn Powys.

Early life Gertrude Mary Powys was born in Brailsford, Derbyshire, in 1877, the fourth child and eldest daughter of the eleven children of Mary Cowper Johnson (1849–1914) and the Reverend Charles Francis Powys (1843–1923). Gertrude Powys subsequently studied art at the Slade School of Fine Art, University College, London in 1903. In 1913/14 she studiedb at the Academie de La Grande Chaumière in Paris. Between 1910–23 she lived at Montacute Vicarage, Somerset, with her father.

Between 1931 and 1950, she was a regular exhibitor at the annual exhibition of the Sherborne Art Club, showing portraits and landscapes.

Gertrude Mary Powys spent many years living with and caring for her father, and it has been argued that her "artistic career was sacrificed for the family." Llewellyn Powys described his sister as: "a most generous, noble, distinguished creature—quite unsurpassed by any other woman I have ever seen. I am always happy with her." He dedicated Skin for Skin (1925) to his sister. Another brother, Littleton, wrote in his autobiography of: "my sister Gertrude, round whom like the sun we different members of the family like the planets revolve".

Death Gertrude Mary Powys died in Weymouth, Dorset on 23 April 1952.

An exhibition of her work was arranged in conjunction with the conference of The Powys Society in Bath in 1986.