An Inventory of Her Art Collection at the Harry Ransom Center
Creator:
Cunard, Nancy, 1896-1965
Title:
Nancy Cunard Art Collection
Dates:
1920s-1980s (bulk 1930s-1950s)
Extent:
61 items
Abstract:
A collection of drawings, prints,
photographs, two scrapbooks, and a needlepoint of and related to the British author,
heiress, and activist, Nancy Cunard.
Call Number:
Art Collection (AR-00055)
Language:
English
Access:
Open for research. Researchers must create an online Research Account and agree to
the Materials Use Policy before using archival materials. Please note that a minimum
of 24 hours notice is required to pull art materials to the Ransom Center's Reading
and Viewing Room. Some materials may be restricted from viewing. To make an
appointment or to reserve art materials, please contact the Center's staff at
art@hrc.utexas.edu.
Use Policies:
Ransom Center collections may contain material with sensitive or confidential
information that is protected under federal or state right to privacy laws and
regulations. Researchers are advised that the disclosure of certain information
pertaining to identifiable living individuals represented in the collections without
the consent of those individuals may have legal ramifications (e.g., a cause of
action under common law for invasion of privacy may arise if facts concerning
an
individual's private life are published that would be deemed highly offensive
to a
reasonable person) for which the Ransom Center and The University of Texas at
Austin
assume no responsibility.
Restrictions on Use:
Authorization for publication is given on behalf of the University of Texas as the
owner of the collection and is not intended to include or imply permission of
the
copyright holder which must be obtained by the researcher. For more information
please see the Ransom Centers' Open Access and Use Policies.
Nancy Clara Cunard was born in Leicestershire on March 10, 1896, to Sir Bache Cunard,
heir of the Cunard steamship line, and young American heiress Maud Alice Burke.
Although born into wealth and privilege, Cunard would eschew these comforts for
the
life of a renegade poet, publisher, and civil rights activist. She often suffered
the scorn and ridicule of family, friends, and the general public for her political
beliefs and artistic pursuits. With her sharp, arresting features and strong sense
of visual style (which often included armfuls of African bracelets), Cunard was
extensively photographed, most famously by Man Ray and Cecil Beaton. Cunard founded
the Hours Press in 1927, first publishing Samuel Beckett and financing the
monumental anthology of African and Black music, culture, art, and politics, Negro, in 1934. She was a freelance journalist during the
Spanish Civil War, advocating for refugees, and traveled to the United States
to
investigate racial injustice and support the rights of African Americans. Cunard
traveled as a poet and activist throughout most of her life, but did pause to
write
memoirs of Norman Douglas in 1954 and George Moore in 1956. Cunard died on March
16,
1965, in the Hôpital Cochin in Paris. For a more extensive biographical sketch,
see
the Nancy Cunard Collection (MS-01010) finding aid.
Sources:
Marcus, Jane. “Cunard, Nancy Clara (1896–1965).” Jane Marcus Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, edited by H. C. G. Matthew and
Brian Harrison. Oxford: OUP, 2004. Online ed., edited by David Cannadine, September
2010. http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/39454 (accessed September 22, 2017).
Scope and Contents
The collection consists of drawings, prints, photographs, two scrapbooks, and a
needlepoint of and related to Nancy Cunard. Artists in the collection include
John
Banting, Augustus John, and Wyndham Lewis. Subjects include portraits of Cunard,
Norman Douglas, George Moore, and Abraham Lincoln, as well as landscape drawings,
Banting's surreal figural and abstract drawings, and sketches of African scuplture,
power figures, jewelry, and masks. A pencil sketch of Nancy Cunard’s home in the
south of France, which dates to circa 1963, was given to the Ransom Center in
2000.
Related Material
Works and correspondence by and about Nancy Cunard can be found in the Nancy Cunard
Collection (MS-01010), and photographs of, by, and related to her are present
in the
Nancy Cunard Literary File Photography Collection (PH-00281). Additionally there
is
a portrait of Cunard in the Augustus John Art Collection (AR-00131).
Separated Material
A reptile skin and brass frame, and a tooled leather folder reside in the Nancy
Cunard Personal Effects Collection.
