Lilian Victoria Epworth Colbourn (1897–1967)
Derbyshire & Derby School Library Service
Figurative painter, using a rich palette to produce strong and gestural works. She was born Victoria Proctor in Epworth, Lincolnshire, into a nonconformist background, marrying Richard Colbourn, an engineer, in 1922. From then for some years lived at Radcliffe, Manchester. Studied painting and drawing under Joseph Knight at Bury School of Art and had lessons from Emmanuel Levy. Began to exhibit widely at group shows in Preston, Manchester and Liverpool and with BWS, of which she was elected an associate in 1923. For a time she wrote reviews of local and national exhibitions for the Bury Times. When her marriage to Colbourn broke down she married Joseph Wilson and lived for a time in Guildford, early in the 1940s settling with him and their daughters in Staithes, Yorkshire, a popular venue for artists.
Text source: 'Artists in Britain Since 1945' by David Buckman (Art Dictionaries Ltd, part of Sansom & Company)
