Biography
Harold 'Harry' Arthur Drury (b. Seattle, Washington, USA - b. Stowe, Vermont, USA 2003) attended the Elam School of Fine Arts in Auckland, New Zealand and frequented the local museum of Native Maori art. His sojourn in London's bustling art scene of the 1940's brought him a grant in 1952 from Sir Edward Marsh (1872-1953), descendant of the assasinated prime minister Spencer Perceval, who benefitted from what Marsh himself called 'murder money'; secretary of state to Sir Winston Churchill; and a leading patron of the arts. This enabled Drury to take a studio in Paris where he met and married America-born Louisa Noble (1929-2021) who was working for the Paris Review and was introduced to him by George Whitman (Walt's nephew), the caretaker of Shakespeare and Company, the famed Left Bank bookstore. There they had three children: Carol, born in 1958; John in 1962; and Kathryn in 1963 and they all returned to the USA in 1968. Drury's Man's Head in Blue was exhibited at The private collector : being an exhibition of pictures and sculpture belonging to members of the Contemporary Art Society, Tate Gallery (1950) when it was still in Marsh's collection. Drury's paintings were reviewed by John Russell in The Sunday Times. He also exhibited at the Musee d'Art Moderne, Paris; the Petit Palais, Paris; The New Zealand Arts Council, Auckland; The Individuals Gallery, New York City and the Bundy Gallery, Vermont.
