Thelma Hulbert died in 1995, leaving behind a body of work celebrated for its subtle colourism and quiet domestic subjects.
Thelma Hulbert died in 1995, bringing to a close a career that spanned more than six decades of dedicated painting. She had continued to work and exhibit into her later years, remaining committed to the exploration of colour, light, and everyday subject matter that had defined her practice since her days at the Euston Road School.
Her death marked the loss of one of the last surviving members of a generation of British artists who had trained and worked alongside towering figures such as William Coldstream, Victor Pasmore, and Claude Rogers. Hulbert had also been notable as one of the few women to hold a significant curatorial post in a major British museum, having worked at the Whitechapel Gallery under Bryan Robertson.
In recognition of her contribution to British art, and her deep ties to Devon, the Thelma Hulbert Gallery in Elmfield, Honiton, was later established and named after her, ensuring that her legacy as a painter and as a champion of the arts in the South West of England continued long after her death.
Her paintings remain held in public collections including the Arts Council Collection and are periodically exhibited, including retrospectives that have reassessed her place among the pioneering women of the Euston Road circle.