Maltby Sykes and Marjorie Tyre Sykes: A Tale of Two Talents

When Maltby Sykes met Marjorie Tyre, it was a match made in artist heaven. Marjorie was a classical harpist of the highest distinction with the Metropolitan Opera in New York City. Maltby had met her as a young man in Birmingham and had maintained a friendship for many decades before they married in the 1960s.

One particularly serendipitous anecdote involves Sykes’ painting, Trio, now in the collection of the Jule Collins Smith Museum of Art at Auburn University. Executed in 1936 during Maltby’s apprenticeship in Mexico under Diego Rivera, the oil portrait depicts the famous international musical trio led by harpist Carlos Salzedo, which was then performing in Mexico City. Unbeknownst to Maltby, some 25 years before he would marry Marjorie, Salzedo would later become Marjorie’s most influential teacher.