Hearn, Ila Rose

Ila Rose Hearn was born in Kingston, Surrey, England on 25 March 1898. In c.1918 she moved to Paris and attended the Académie Julian which she found stuffy and uninspiring. She was on the point of leaving when the president of the “Société de la Miniature”, Horace de Callias (1847-1921), on seeing one of her drawings, offered to take her training in hand. His only fee being an occasional cream bun. The following year he made her a member of the Société and she exhibited for the first time at the Musée Crillon in 1922. It would seem that not long after, she returned to England, because between 1923 and 1928 she exhibited at the Royal Academy in London and the Walker Art Gallery in Liverpool. Her address was given as 45b Colville Gardens, London in 1928.

Hearn illustrated at least one book - 'Tales and Legends of Ireland' by Monica Cosens (London : George G. Harrap & Co. 1925), which clearly shows the influence of Harry Clarke and the artists of the Irish Celtic Revival.

A pen drawing by Hearn is illustrated in Colour vol. 19, nos. 4-5, November-December 1923 p. 19. She was the subject of an article, 'Poetry in Black and White' by G.M. Ellwood in Drawing & Design vol. 3, no. 42, October 1923 pp 634-635.

By the late 1930s Hearn was no longer working as an illustrator and was training to be an architect. In the 1939 England and Wales Register she gave her occupation as Architectural Student. She was then aged 41.  By the mid-1950s she was practising as an architect and living in Maida Vale, London.

She published at least one book of her poetry, 'Dust' (London, E. MacDonald, 1918).

Hearn died on 15 April 1978. Her address at the time of her death was 83A Ashley Gardens, London