
Helen Dorothy Kiddall (1888–1980)
Colchester and Ipswich Museums Service: Ipswich Borough Council Collection
Painter and keen amateur musician. She entered Royal Academy Schools in 1912 for the five-year course where she was a friend of the painter Beatrice Lithiby. She later did a striking portrait of Miss Lithiby in the uniform of a chief commander of the Auxiliary Territorial Service. She exhibited at RA and elsewhere, producing many pictures of black children and flower still lifes. A devout Anglican, she is described as having had “a strong sense of humour, delighting in telling stories against herself”. Miss Kiddall was a keen violinist who used to be accompanied by her sister, with whom she lived at Felixstowe, Suffolk.
Text source: 'Artists in Britain Since 1945' by David Buckman (Art Dictionaries Ltd, part of Sansom & Company)