Comments on: Barnett Freedman, Artist

By: Eli Mac

Eli Mac — Sun, 22 Dec 2024 13:33:05 +0000

I am the very fortunate owner of an original ‘Lyons Tearoom’lithographs No.4 entitled People and signed by the Artist. I bought it many years ago from a young man whose father had passed and he was liquidating assets for a donation to a can we charity. I have loved it ever since and it hangs beautifully at the top of my stair in a farmhouse in France!

By: Duncan Mirylees

Duncan Mirylees — Sat, 22 Feb 2020 17:40:23 +0000

I recently bought an enchanting drawing showing three women with a fishmonger and a hungry cat. I bought it because I absolutely loved it and I was convinced that it was by ‘someone’ because it is just too good not to be. I have been trying to identify who might have drawn it.

Unfortunately, it is not, as far as I can see, signed. However, another trawl through the internet this afternoon brought the work of Barnett Freedman and your website, to my attention. there are a great many similarities to his style, in particular to his design for the cover of Sassoon’s ‘Memoir’s of an Infantry Officer’. The drawing is certainly of a aspect of urban -East End London perhaps, life that he might well have drawn.

My question is this , where -or who, as something of an expert on Barnett Freedman’s work as you seem to be, would you recommend that I show my drawing to, in order to see whether an expert might be able to verify if my drawing is by him? I would love to be able to put a name to it.

With many thanks.

Duncan Mirylees.

By: Jacqueline Sarsby

Jacqueline Sarsby — Fri, 09 Feb 2018 13:35:43 +0000

This is such an interesting article, and it is great to see so much of his work. He used to do puppet shows with William Simmonds, the sculptor and puppeteer. William Simmonds would work the puppets, Eve Simmonds would play the spinet or virginals, Casty Cobb would hand William the puppets and Barnet would play the violin. These shows were immensely popular at country houses including Eaton Hall, where on one occasion the Duke of Westminster was entertaining Winston Churchill. Casty Cobb said that at Eaton Hall they did not know whether to entertain the puppeteers upstairs or downstairs, because Eve and William sounded upper class, but Barnet did not. Winston Churchill, incidentally, was asleep on a gilded chair. We are going to have an exhibition about William Simmonds and show a lot of his puppets at Gloucester City Museum from 12th October 2019 to 18th April 2020.

By: Diana Laffin

Diana Laffin — Tue, 16 May 2017 19:34:15 +0000

Thanks for such an interesting article- he is a fascinating man and I love his designs.

I am using the story of Barnett Friedman in a talk I am giving at a history conference in July. I would like to have permission to use a photograph from this site. Please could you let me know how I go about getting copyright permission? Thank you.

By: Carolyn Trant

Carolyn Trant — Tue, 19 Jan 2016 14:35:20 +0000

Hello Vincent…I was a friend and student of Peggy Angus, ( and wrote her biography)- she was a friend of your parents, and I am trying to find out more about your mother’s work. Do email me if you could help and I could send you my phone number; we admire Barnett”s work greatly and I have seen a couple of tantalising images of Claudia’s illustrations and would love to know more about her for another publication.
Best wishes……

By: edward chaney

edward chaney — Sun, 06 Sep 2015 08:51:55 +0000

Extraordinary that EH rejected blue plaque…lets make sure he gets one when he’s allowed to be resubmitted…

By: Stanley Leard-Freeman

Stanley Leard-Freeman — Sat, 15 Aug 2015 10:19:33 +0000

My father Alec Hyman Freedman was Barnet’s brother and I met Barnet on a few occasions when I was a child. He told me he was an atheist and a communist and inspired me to think on those lines. Friendly and considerate he told the story of his mother Booba and her husband who read and wrote English, German and Russian and had Yiddish newspapers sent from New York. On August 6 2015 l reached 87. So if any one is interested get in touch while armaggedon races to my finishing post.
The story: Booba says to my father “Aleck’l vous is dous flying bomb the V.l.? Father replied “this is an aeroplane bomb pointed at London by the nazis. When it runs out of fuel the engine stops and it continues to fall over and into London.”
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Booba replied “You say there is no pilot……there could be a most terrible accident.”
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# My telephone number is 01923 242067 during shop hours.

By: Lowena Hull

Lowena Hull — Fri, 06 Feb 2015 21:44:13 +0000

I stumbled upon this whilst looking for Barnett Freedman, so proud to be his great-granddaughter! I think my favourite would be the Sicilian Puppets or A London Street View- I really like the attention paid to the dress design!

By: Marguerite Fletcher

Marguerite Fletcher — Fri, 30 May 2014 12:59:03 +0000

Dear Vincent
For decades my sister and I have been searching for our ‘lost’ great grandfather, Louis Freedman/Friedman, a journeyman tailor of Russian origin (came to England from Riga). His last known abode was in the East end of London in 1894. He had run away from home – Hull area- with my great-grandmother and both were underage for marriage without consent . The union did not last and they separated, leaving both free to marry. Your grandfather is the only possible candidate that we can find, so we would be absolutely delighted to make contact with you. Even definite confirmation that your grandfather is not the same Louis Freedman as our Great- grandfather would be helpful. Our Louis alternated the spelling of his last name between Freedman and Friedman- as we have his name on birth certificates and the 1891 census. The family photo I found on a website shows a marked resemblance between your Louis and my father, his mother and her brother – Louis’ possible son- Frank Freedman. They all look more like Louis than the other family members. For it to be the same Louis, he would need to have come to England by 1889. I do hope you are able to contact me. Best Wishes

By: Ellen Reimers

Ellen Reimers — Thu, 02 Jan 2014 03:42:54 +0000

A friend of Vincent and Kathleen Freedman from Papua New Guinea days would like to get in touch. I enjoyed reading about Vincent’s father and remember Vincent showing me some of the artist’s work when visiting the Fredmans in the south of England. Sincerely from Ellen and hoping for some way to contact my friends again.