SPANTON, Mabel Mary

1874 - 1947

Mabel Mary Spanton was born at 8 Old Hall Street, Hanley, Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire on 1 December 1874 and baptised at Hanley on 24 February 1875, second child and eldest daughter of three sons and three daughters of Dr William Dunnett Spanton, F.R.C.S., (27 September 1840-13 May 1922), a surgeon, and his wife Ellen Victoria née Bates (1837-8 September 1916), who married at St James, Croydon Common, Surrey on 10 October 1867. Mabel studied at Hanley School of Art under Samuel Joseph Cartlidge (1871-1935) and at Newlyn, Cornwall under Stanhope Forbes (1857-1947) and won a silver medal at Tunbridge Wells Arts & Crafts for a watercolour interior. In 1911, giving her occupation as 'none', she was living at Parkfields, Tittensor, Stoke-on-Trent with her parents, 70-year-old William and 73-year-old Ellen, with an unmarried sibling sister Lilian 26 but by 1921 had moved to Ripson Lodge, St Helen's, Hastings, Sussex with her father. Elected a member of the Royal Watercolour Society in 1927 and during the early 1920s Spanton lived in both Hastings and at 1 Woodville Road, Bexhill-on-sea, Sussex before spending many of her later years painting in Europe, including the Balearic Islands in 1925, Italy, Spain, the Netherlands, and Belgium and in 1928 holding an exhibition of these works at Walker's Art Galleries in London. She exhibited extensively including at the Royal Academy; London Salon; Royal Society of British Artists; the Society of Women Artists; Royal Institute of Painters in Watercolours; Women's International Art Club; Dudley Gallery and New Dudley Gallery; Goupil Gallery. She exhibited at the Ipswich Art Society from c/o Messrs J. Bourlet, 17 Nassau Street, London in 1937, two works 'The Cypres Corner, Ronda' and 'Notre Dame, Bruges'. In 1939, 'on private means', living at Moors Plot, Tors Park, Okehampton, Devon. Mabel Mary Spanton was of The Seven Stars Inn, South Tawton, Okehampton when she died on 28 January 1947, she was unmarried. She signed her works 'M. M. Spanton'.

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Works by This Artist