# Victorine Foot > Mediated Wiki article. Canonical URL: https://mediated.wiki/source/Victorine_Foot > Markdown URL: https://mediated.wiki/source/Victorine_Foot.md > Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Victorine_Foot > Source revision: 1351617118 > License: Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/) British artist and wartime camoufleur (1920-2000 Victorine Anne Foot Born 1 May 1920 Pembury, Kent Died 2000 (aged 79–80) Education Central School of Art Chelsea School of Art Edinburgh College of Art Known for Painting Spouse Eric Schilsky **Victorine Anne Foot** [SSA](/source/Society_of_Scottish_Artists) (1 May 1920 – 2000) was a British artist who worked in oils, watercolours and pastels. Foot is best known for her work during World War II on [military camouflage](/source/Military_camouflage) and for her post-war career as an artist and teacher in Scotland.[1] ## Early life Foot was born in Knowles Bank near [Pembury](/source/Pembury) in Kent and studied at the [Central School of Art](/source/Central_School_of_Art) in London between 1938 and 1941.[2] ## World War Two *Camouflaging a Cruiser in Dock* (1943) (Art. IWM LD 3016) After the war began, the Central School of Art was evacuated to [Northampton](/source/Northampton) in 1941 and Foot gave up her studies to take a job as a Junior Technical Assistant in the Naval Section of the Directorate of Camouflage based in [Leamington Spa](/source/Leamington_Spa).[3] Her duties included painting [camouflage](/source/Military_camouflage) designs onto models of ships. The models were all based on real ships; if the real ship was sunk or lost the model was retired from further use.[4] Whilst at the Camouflage Directorate, Foot drew and painted her colleagues at work, both at Leamington Spa and at the docks where they painted their camouflage schemes onto ships. She submitted some of this work to the [War Artists' Advisory Committee](/source/War_Artists'_Advisory_Committee) and had one painting, *Camouflaging a Cruiser in Dock*, purchased by the Committee in June 1943.[5] ## Post-war career When the war ended, Foot returned to her art studies. She studied at the [Chelsea School of Art](/source/Chelsea_School_of_Art) for a short time before she moved to Edinburgh, where she married [Eric Schilsky](/source/Eric_Schilsky), an artist whom she had first met at the Camouflage Unit. Schilsky was head of the School of Sculpture at [Edinburgh College of Art](/source/Edinburgh_College_of_Art) and Foot enrolled there, gaining her Diploma in 1949. In 1949 Foot had her first solo exhibition at the Institute Francais in Edinburgh. She went on to exhibit with the [New English Art Club](/source/New_English_Art_Club), the [London Group](/source/London_Group), at the [Royal Academy](/source/Royal_Academy) and the [Royal Scottish Academy](/source/Royal_Scottish_Academy).[2] The critic [Jack Beddington](/source/Jack_Beddington) included Foot as one of the subjects in his 1957 book *Young Artists of Promise*.[6][7] Foot also taught for periods of time, at the Edinburgh College of Art in 1950 and 1951, and at Oxenfoord Castle School, in Midlothian, throughout the 1960s and 1970s.[8] In 1994 Foot donated her sketches from Leamington Spa to the [Imperial War Museum](/source/Imperial_War_Museum). Works by Foot are also held by [Aberdeen Art Gallery](/source/Aberdeen_Art_Gallery) and the [Scottish Arts Council](/source/Scottish_Arts_Council).[3] ## References 1. **[^](#cite_ref-SSAvf_1-0)** ["About Victorine Foot SSA 1920-2000"](http://victorinefoot.co.uk/about/). *Victorine Foot, Studio Gallery of Original Paintings*. Retrieved 5 March 2013. 1. ^ [***a***](#cite_ref-GMWaters_2-0) [***b***](#cite_ref-GMWaters_2-1) Grant M. Waters (1975). *Dictionary of British Artists Working 1900-1950*. Eastbourne Fine Art. 1. ^ [***a***](#cite_ref-Palmer_3-0) [***b***](#cite_ref-Palmer_3-1) Kathleen Palmer (2011). *Women War Artists*. Tate Publishing/Imperial War Museum. [ISBN](/source/ISBN_(identifier)) [978-1-85437-989-4](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:BookSources/978-1-85437-989-4). 1. **[^](#cite_ref-ACCAD_4-0)** ["The Camouflage Project:Victorine Foot"](https://web.archive.org/web/20140306172510/http://camouflage.osu.edu/victorinefoot.html). Ohio State University Department of Theatre and the Advanced Computing Center for the Arts and Design (ACCAD). 2011. Archived from [the original](http://camouflage.osu.edu/victorinefoot.html) on 6 March 2014. Retrieved 5 March 2014. 1. **[^](#cite_ref-IWMvf_5-0)** Imperial War Museum. ["War artists archive;Victorine Foot"](http://www.iwm.org.uk/collections/item/object/1050001258). *[Imperial War Museum](/source/Imperial_War_Museum)*. Retrieved 5 March 2013. 1. **[^](#cite_ref-6)** [Jack Beddington](/source/Jack_Beddington) (1957). *Young Artists of Promise*. [The Studio](/source/The_Studio_(magazine)). pp. 27, 49, 123. 1. **[^](#cite_ref-BuckmanVol1_7-0)** David Buckman (1998). *Artists in Britain Since 1945 Vol 1, A to L*. Art Dictionaries Ltd. [ISBN](/source/ISBN_(identifier)) [0-95326-095-X](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:BookSources/0-95326-095-X). 1. **[^](#cite_ref-Spalding_8-0)** [Frances Spalding](/source/Frances_Spalding) (1990). *20th Century Painters and Sculptors*. Antique Collectors' Club. [ISBN](/source/ISBN_(identifier)) [1-85149-106-6](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:BookSources/1-85149-106-6). ## External links Wikimedia Commons has media related to [Victorine Foot](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Victorine_Foot). - [9 artworks by or after Victorine Foot](https://artuk.org/discover/artworks/search/actor:foot-victorine-anne-19202000) at the [Art UK](/source/Art_UK) site - [Works by Victorine Foot](http://www.iwm.org.uk/collections/search?f%5B0%5D=makerString%3AFoot%2C%20Victorine%20Anne&query=) in the [Imperial War Museum](/source/Imperial_War_Museum) collection. v t e Camoufleurs World War I Lucien-Victor Guirand de Scévola Jean-Louis Forain Louis Guingot Loyd A. Jones John Graham Kerr Paul Klee Franz Marc Alister Hardy André Mare Kimon Nicolaïdes Solomon Joseph Solomon Abbott Handerson Thayer Maximilian Toch Leon Underwood Edward Wadsworth Everett Warner Norman Wilkinson World War II Tony Ayrton Geoffrey Barkas Hugh Casson John Codner Bainbridge Copnall Hugh B. Cott Victorine Foot Frederick Gore Stanley William Hayter Ivan Konev Jasper Maskelyne Oliver Messel Colin Moss Roland Penrose Peter Proud Fred Pusey Brian Robb Peter Scott Edward Seago Alan Sorrell Basil Spence Steven Sykes Ernest Townsend Julian Trevelyan Wilfred Clement Von Berg Authority control databases International VIAF Artists ULAN --- Adapted from the Wikipedia article [Victorine Foot](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Victorine_Foot) by Wikipedia contributors ([contributor history](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Victorine_Foot?action=history)). Available under [Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/). Changes may have been made.