Flora Twort

In 2009, the museum acquired the Flora Twort collection and the 18th Century cottage where Flora lived, from Hampshire County Council. This collection is made up of paintings, sketches notebooks and archives. The museum continues to collect items relating to Flora and her work.

Flora Twort (1893-1985) took up painting when she was four. She studied at the London School of Art, the London Polytechnic and the Slade School of Art. 

Many of her works were hung in The Royal Academy and in other London galleries.

She moved to Petersfield at the end of the First World War and opened a bookshop at 1 and 2 The Square. She used the top floor of the bookshop as her studio and painted many scenes of the life of the town and its residents.

In 1948 Flora moved into her new studio in Church Path, where she continued her work, mainly portraits and watercolours. Eventually she retired at the age of 81.

Flora Twort had a passion for the town and the local landscape. Her paintings of market scenes in the Square and the Petersfield Heath with the Taro Fair bring old Petersfield to life. She worked in watercolour and oil, and also painted many portraits in pastels, chalk and  charcoal.

Flora contributed regularly to the Petersfield Arts and Crafts Society, of which she was a founding member, and at the Petersfield Sketch Club, which she formed in 1941.

The Flora Twort collection includes nearly 1,000 works, from sketch books and printing blocks to finished paintings.

If you have anything painted by or which belonged to Flora Twort which you would like to donate to the Museum, please contact the Head of Collections and Exhibitions at curator@petersfieldmuseum.co.uk