Gladys Peto (1890-1977)
Gladys Peto was born in Maidenhead, Berkshire on 19 June 1890. She studied at the local school of art (1908) and in London, subsequently working as a painter, illustrator, and designer of fabric, pottery, scenery and posters. Establishing herself with a series of illustrations to the novels of Louisa M Alcott (1914) and a satirical diary in The Sketch (1915-26), she went on to publish a number of diverting travel books and popular children’s annuals. Though as late as 1954 (in The Glass of Fashion), Cecil Beaton described her as a ‘bastard Beardsley’, her work is more comparable to that of John Austen, the lightest, least sinister – perhaps most syncopated – of Beardsley’s followers. Based in Chelsea during her active career, she moved to County Derry, Northern Ireland in 1939, and died in June 1977.
8 & 10 Ryder Street, St James’s, London SW1Y 6QB
gallery@chrisbeetles.com
020 7839 7551
© Chris Beetles Ltd 2025 | Accessibility | Privacy | Sitemap
