My creative writing group recently held a workshop at Chesterfield Museum. Arriving late, I had only a few minutes for the task in hand, to write about something interesting in the museum, so I looked around for what was nearby. Immediately I spotted a portrait hanging on the wall opposite, a head and shoulders of a middle-aged woman looking directly at me. There was nothing dramatic about the picture but the eyes were arresting and have haunted me since. In the two minutes available, all I could note was:
“She stares from a featureless landscape
Flat green grass stretches behind her, two trees on the horizon
Her gaze is hard, slightly fearful
As though she says ‘I’m not really here,
Don’t capture me, pin me down, there’s more to me than meets the eye,
more than you will ever see.’”
Our tutor told us the artist was Phyllis Hanson and her biography, on the wall behind me, spoke of how her father Fred refused to let her attend art college. Instead he took her into his saddlery business, which she continued after his death. But she produced her art anyway, proving by the collection on the walls that there was indeed plenty more to her than first meets the eye.
Phyllis Annie Hanson (1910-1994) spent her life in Chesterfield, though her parents Fred Hanson and Lizzie Ann Parish were both from Lincolnshire. After marriage in 1902, they moved to Chesterfield, where Fred worked as a saddler. They had two children: Phyllis and her older sister Kathleen May, who married Edgar Ernest Sharp in 1938.
In 1924, Fred Hanson bought up the Bennett saddlers and leather-working business at 49 Beetwell Street and operated there until its demolition in 1939. Fred and Phyllis then ran the business from 19 Cavendish Street until his death in 1952, when she took over, selling up thirteen years later. Throughout these years, Phyllis practised her art and continued to work from home at 24 Albion Street until her death in 1994, when her art collection was donated to Chesterfield Museum. Their biography of her continues:
‘Phyllis was a talented artist and she became part of a local group of artists which included James Arundel Massey. Some of her most interesting works are the narrative sketches and etchings she made of everyday happenings in Chesterfield. She was also a violinist for Hasland Hall String Orchestra. She was a familiar figure in the town, and in later life was often seen selling produce from her allotment on the WI Market stall in New Square.’
I found it fascinating to learn more about this woman artist I hadn’t heard of before, whose eyes had held mine on that day in the museum, and to learn that Chesterfield had a thriving cultural scene in the 20th century. There should be plenty more to learn about that.
Chesterfield Museum provided the images of Phyllis’s pictures which are reproduced here with their kind permission. You can see the display of her collection at the Museum in a room up the stairs from the main galleries.
I came across the info about Phyllis Hanson by chance. When I read that her sister had married Edgar Sharp, I remembered only one Edgar – Mr Sharp, who lived next door to my aunt in Newbold Back Lane, when I was a child.
I checked with my cousin and found that Edgar and his wife, Kathleen, were indeed the couple I recalled. Although built up now, the houses of my aunt and Mr and Mrs Sharp looked out over farmland – a lovely spot.
Many thanks for your comment Joy, I was interested to hear about your memories of the Sharps and where they lived. If you also remember them having a son, could you write to me again at my email address: celiarenshaw[AT sign]gmail.com? Apologies for taking so long to reply, Celia.