‘Chateau Rose’ by Sonia Lawson (b. 1934)

Oil on Canvas

Purchased with grant-aid from the Victoria &

Albert Museum Purchase Grant Fund in 1988

Catalogue number: A1. 1158

Further information: Sonia Lawson was born in Darlington in 1934, the daughter of the Yorkshire artists Muriel Metcalf and Fred Lawson.  In her parents foot steps she trained as an artist, first in Doncaster and then the Royal College of Art, London.

In this painting a female artist, perhaps Lawson herself, works at a table surrounded and inspired by the supportive weight of tradition as represented by books.  Behind lies the pinkish limestone battlements of Castle Bolton in Wensleydale where her family lived.