Stella Schmolle, 1908-1975

Stella Schmolle was a British painter born in Barnes, London, in 1908 and died on the 5th of march 1975. She is best known for the paintings she created while working in the Auxiliary Territorial Service during WWII, as well as her post-war portraits. She attended the Central School of Arts and Crafts, where she also taught. She worked as a commercial artist and illustrator after finishing in 1939. Schmolle submitted it to the Ministry of Information's Art Department in December 1941, but was turned down. However, the same Ministry's War Artists' Advisory Committee, WAAC, agreed to help her in acquiring materials to continue working as an artist during WWII. Schmolle was conscripted into the Auxiliary Territorial Service, or ATS, in 1942 and originally worked as a camouflage artist before becoming a draughtswoman for an ATS intelligence officer. She served with the ATS in both the United Kingdom and, after the D-Day invasions in 1944, in France and Belgium. Schmolle was commissioned after the war to create a Stations of the Cross sequence for the Roman Catholic Chapel at the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst. She went on to become an art teacher and a well-known portrait painter. Schmolle's work can be found in the British Museum, Auckland Art Gallery, National Army Museum, Imperial War Museum, and in the Fleming Collection.