Information is being sought about the artist Doris Brabham Hatt who was born in back in 1890.

Dr Denys Wilcox has got in touch with the Memories page to see if readers have any information about the artist who died in Clevedon in 1969. He is also looking for a photograph of her.

Dr Wilcox is organising a biography of the artist and a retrospective exhibition of her work and is interested in both her paintings and details about her life.

Doris Hatt, the Communist artist, whose uncle was Sir Harry Hatt a one time Mayor of Bath, trained in Vienna and became a painter, designer and printmaker.

She studied at the School of Art in Bath, then at Royal College of Art and in Vienna.

Exhibitions included Royal Academy, Leicester and Redfern Galleries, Jack Bilbo's Modern Art Gallery, and Foyles Gallery.

For a while, in the 1920s she mingled in the circle that surrounded Picasso in Paris, which shifted her away from a naturalistic post-impressionistic style to a more radical modernism, encompassing even cubism and other styles.

Although she went back to a more personalised naturalism in later life, the works of her late period still possess a strong modernist sense of colour and boldness of composition.

Says Dr Wilcox: "Her work in posterity is still of interest and there have been numerous exhibitions, including at the Redfern and Leicester Galleries, as well as in continental Europe.

"Her work is represented in several major public collections. She not only painted but was also a wood carver.

"In 1932, the artist had a remarkable modernist house built for her in the seaside town of Clevedon, Somerset, to her own design.

"The house replaced a wooden ex-army bungalows with a veranda front, which she had put on the site after the First World War.

"She later scandalised polite Clevedon by living here with her partner Margery Mack Smith.

"To make matters worse, it is said, this artist, writer and lesbian attempted to sell the Daily Worker to locals.

"But her message couldn't have fallen on such stony ears.

"Possibly a legacy bequeathed by Hatt to Clevedon was that Bert Searl was elected a Communist councillor for the Urban District Council of Clevedon in North Somerset in the 1950s and was re-elected in May 1957."

In the 1950s and 1960s Doris had a series of one-woman shows at various galleries, plus a retrospective at RWA.

If you have any information about the artist you can reach Dr Wilcox on 01984 639969 or 07890 409703.

Pictured is one of Doris Hatt's paintings (inspired by her idol Fernand Léger) called The Fish Market, Antibes painted in about 1951.