From:Williamson Art Gallery and Museum

Name/TitleInterior

About this objectEthel Martin (later Frimston) was a Liverpool-born painter and sculptor, the youngest child of flag manufacturer William Martin. She studied at University College Liverpool’s Applied Art Department, known as the ‘Art Sheds’, and was listed as an art student in the 1901 census. In 1906, she co-founded the Sandon Studios Society, an alternative art school that later helped save and repurpose the Bluecoat School building as an arts centre. Martin served on the Society’s General Committee and was closely associated with Charles Reilly, Professor of Architecture, who referred to her as a “suffragette sculptress.”

She exhibited regularly, including in the Sandon’s first show in 1908 and the groundbreaking 1911 post-impressionist exhibition featuring Picasso and Matisse. Her works included sculpture and painting, such as The Sphinx, commissioned for Reilly’s Students’ Union. She also exhibited with the Liverpool Academy and the Society of Modern Painters. In 1910, she married cotton broker Edward Noel Frimston and continued her artistic involvement under the name Ethel Frimston. The couple had two children and lived in Neston, Wirral, where she died in 1940.

Martin was not related to fellow Liverpool artist William Alison Martin (1878–1936), also an ‘Art Shed’ student and Sandon member. Separately, Ellen Ethel Martin (1873–1969), a Kent-born artist, exhibited portraits and landscapes at the Royal Academy and married painter Ernest Fridlander in 1905. She lived in Hampstead and died in 1969, leaving a substantial estate.

MakerFrimston, Ethel Martin (1880-1940)

Maker Rolepainter

Period20th century

Style and IconographyInterior

Techniqueoil on canvas

Measurementssupport height: 50.8 cm
support width: 40.6 cm

Subject and Association Keywordsflower

Subject and Association Keywordstable

Subject and Association Keywordsmirror

Subject and Association Keywordscurtain

Subject and Association Keywordsrug

Subject and Association Keywordschair

Subject and Association Keywordscoat

Credit LinePurchased from Spring Exhibition, 1913

Object Typepainting

Object numberBIKGM.81

Copyright LicenceAll rights reserved