Susan Day

Granddaughter of the artist and cinematographer Walter Percy Day, Susan Day trained as an art historian at the Ecole du Louvre, in Paris, where she read Islamic Art, graduating with a thesis devoted to Ottoman Turkish carpets. Employed as Chief Librarian for the Institut Francais d’Architecture/Cite de l’Architecture et du Patrimoine from 1981 to 2004 and as Scientific Advisor for Islamic department at the Louvre Museum until her retirement, she has written extensively about twentieth century architecture and the decorative arts and Islamic carpets and textiles. She later took up painting in oils, watercolour and pastels, attending sessions in anatomical and life drawing at the Academie de la Grande Chaumiere and in the sculptor Rosy Lamb’s studio. In addition to still life, and scenes of Poundbury, her figurative work attempts to document the quirks of modern life and changing social behaviour, particularly in relation to modern technology.