Quentin Blake (b.1932)
Women at Downing #9
2020

Oil pastel, drawing book paper, signed.
290 x 420mm

When Quentin Blake came up to Downing College to read English in 1953, it had been only five years since women had been awarded degrees at the University of Cambridge. All Cambridge colleges were single-sex, with only two colleges for women. In 1980, the first batch of female undergraduates took their places at Downing College, and, by 1988, all the historically all-male colleges began to accept women as full members. In his exclusive series of drawings completed in 2020, 40 Women for Downing, Quentin Blake presented imaginary portraits of female students, one to mark each year of 40 years of women at Downing College.

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