Winifred Newberry was born in 1880 in the
Orange Free State South Africa. Her father, Charles Newberry, a millionaire who made his money in Kimberly, was the builder of
Prynnsberg Estate. Her mother Elizabeth was the daughter of a missionary to
Moshoeshoe I and was herself intensely artistic. Winifred was presented at court in 1898 in London when she presumably met
Guy Brunton, an Egyptologist who later became her husband. They built the house in
Berea, in Johannesburg, in 1906, the same year they were married. She became best known for her portraits of
Egyptian
pharaohs, published as
Kings and Queens of Ancient Egypt (1926) and
Great Ones of Ancient Egypt (1929). She married Egyptologist
Guy Brunton on 28 April 1906 and together they studied at University College London, during which time she painted a portrait of
Flinders Petrie in 1912, which is now in the collection of UCL Art Collection. At UCL they trained with
Margaret Murray, before travelling to
Lahun in Egypt to join Flinders Petrie for fieldwork in 1912–14. Working with her husband on the archaeological digs, she studied the evidence of the various painting, sculptures and even the mummies to develop her final portraits. Guy and Winifred both continued to contribute to excavations organised by
Flinders Petrie's British School of Archaeology in Egypt in the 1920s at sites like Badari, with Winifred drawing many of the objects discovered. Brunton died, aged 78, in
Clocolan,
Free State,
South Africa. == Popular culture ==