Papers relating to the life and work of Simon Bussy

Simon Bussy was a French painter of portraits, landscapes, and animals. This collection consists mainly of correspondence between his wife, Dorothy Strachey, and her family regarding Bussy's life, exhibitions, and work during 1906-1907. It includes some lists and exhibition catalogues of his early work, and letters from William Rothenstein and Jacques-Emile Blanche. It also includes the correspondence and papers of Lucy Norton, collected whilst compiling biographies of Simon Bussy and his daughter, Janie Bussy, for an unpublished Mellon Foundation Dictionary.

Simon Albert Bussy was born in Dãole, France in 1870. In 1886 he won a scholarship to the Ecole des Arts Decoratifs in Paris, and in 1890 he went on to the Ecole des Beaux-Arts where he studied under E Delauney and Gustave Moreau, alongside Matisse and Rouault. In 1897 he had his first exhibition at Durand-Ruel's gallery. In 1901 he went to England to stay with Lady Strachey and held an exhibition in London in 1902. The following year he married Dorothy Strachey. After the marriage, the Bussys split their time between 'La Souco', at Roquebrune in the South of France, and England and Scotland during the summer months. Their daughter Jane-Simone "Janie" was born in 1906, and also became a painter. After his London exhibition, Bussy showed regularly at the Leicester Galleries and the Salon d'Automne. His main influences at this time were Whistler and Degas, but he was also interested in oriental art and Japanese prints. He painted portraits of the Bloomsbury circle and his Strachey relatives, however, despite the excellence of his work, he did not gain many commissions. His later work became almost exclusively concerned with landscape and studies of animals, fishes and birds. Simon Bussy died in 1954.