Artist Database

Eleanor Esmonde-White grew up in Pietermaritzburg, South Africa, and was awarded a scholarship to study art at the Natal University College (later University of KwaZulu-Natal) in Durban. In her second year of study, she was awarded the Herbert Baker Scholarship to the Royal College of Art, and along with fellow South African artist Leroux Smith Leroux, was granted a commission to paint murals for South Africa House in London. Esmonde-White returned to South Africa after WWII and established the department of Design at Michaelis Art School at the University of Cape Town. She taught wood engraving, mosaic and mural painting in egg tempera. She exhibited with the New Group and was chosen to represent South Africa at the Venice Biennial in 1956 and in São Paolo in 1957. Esmonde-White is most renowned for her numerous large-scale tapestries, mosaics and murals in corporate buildings, theatres, educational institutions and civic buildings.