Explore: Ethel Sands

(1873 - 1962)

Born in Newport, Rhode Island, USA, Ethel Sands’ family settled in London in 1879. Studying in Paris (1894), Sands met Anna (Nan) Hope Hudson, an American painter who became her lifelong partner. Both studied with Eugène Carrière until 1901 and exhibited in Paris and London. Returning to London in 1907, they joined Sickert’s Fitzroy Street Group and later co-founded the London Group (1913). Sands painted quiet interior and figure scenes, portraits and still lifes. In the First World War, she and Hudson ran a hospital in Normandy. Afterwards, they lived between London and France, hosting events at their château near Dieppe. Both worked as war nurses in 1939, escaping France in 1940. Sands died in London in 1962, five years after Hudson’s death.