Nancy Carline

Nancy Mona Carline (née Higgins, 30 November 1909 – 18 October 2004) was a British artist who painted landscapes with figures, portraits, biblical and classical subjects plus groups of figures in domestic settings. She studied at the Slade School of Art and worked at the Sadlers Wells Ballet and later attended the stage design course at the Slade run by Vladimir Polunin. In 1950 she married the artist Richard Carline, which placed her at the centre of an artistic circle centred on the Carline family in Hampstead.

Biography Carline was born in London, to a British father and an Australian mother. Her father, Douglas Higgins, was the co-founder of the Jones & Higgins store in Peckham. After he was killed at the Battle of Passchendaele, Nancy and her three siblings were raised by their mother, Mona, in a large house containing the art and antiques that he had collected throughout his life. After attending Wycombe Abbey School, Carline enrolled at the Slade School of Art in 1928 where she was taught by Henry Tonks, Philip Wilson Steer and, from 1930, Allan Gwynne-Jones, who became a lifelong friend to her. For two seasons, from 1933, Carline worked, on an unpaid basis, in the costume department at the Sadlers wells ballet. Among the artists working there was Vladimir and Elizabeth Polunin who were producing and designing opera and ballet sets for the company. Vladimir Polunin encouraged her to take the course he was teaching in stage design at the Slade and Carline returned to the art school. There, in 1934, she met Richard Carline, whom she eventually married in 1950. Richard Carline was the youngest of the five children born to the artist George Francis Carline and Anne Smith (1862–1945). His brother, Sydney Carline and his sister Hilda Carline were also artists, as was his brother-in-law, Stanley Spencer. Other artists who were regularly at the Carline family home in Hampstead included Henry Lamb, Paul Nash, John Nash, Gilbert Spencer and Mark Gertler. Nancy Carline's 1946 painting Supper on the Terrace shows the Carline family of artists at their Pond Street home in Hampstead.

In the late 1930s both Nancy and Richard Carline were active in helping refugees from Nazi Germany settle in London. Among her war-time paintings were Soho in War-time and VE Night, a depiction of the celebrations at the end of the conflict in Europe. the New English Art Club, the Artists' International Association, and the Wildenstein Gallery in 1946. A retrospective of her life's work was held at the Camden Arts Centre