Wednesday 20th December - Constance E. Plimpton Smith (1858-1938)

 Today has been very frustrating and I almost gave up several times, but I have persevered for all the good it will do us. I have one very sad illustration and a lot of loose ends, but I think that might be the story with a lot of the women who appeared on the walls of the Royal Academy never to be seen again.  Our victim today exhibited there from 1884 to around 1900.  Not only that, after she married, she and her artist husband submitted joint paintings to the Royal Academy, which must have been a novelty.  Say hello to Constance E. Plimpton...

I warn you now, there will be a lot of 'I think' and 'as far as I can see' in this post as Constance has been, by far, my most slippery character so far, which is ridiculous; for some facts I'm rock solid.  I know for a fact that she was born in the summer of 1858, the year after her brother Richard was born. I think (here we go) that the 'E' in her name is Eliza, after her mother, her father being William (1817-1891) a corn and seed merchant (like his father before him).  Her brother Richard became Assistant Professor of Chemistry at University College London. The family lived on Lansdowne Road in Lambeth for many years, and Constance was first seen here in the 1861 census.  In 1863, Eliza died, leaving her husband with Richard and Constance, although by 1871 William's sister Martha has joined the household and would remain there until her death in 1882.  

Constance doesn't list any occupation in the census in 1881, but by 1884 she is exhibiting, firstly with the Royal Institute of Painters in Watercolour, where she showed two works - "There is but one / with whom she has heart to be gay / She is weary of dance and play" and Lillie.  The first is based on Tennyson's poem Maud, and I'm guessing the second is a portrait. As we will see, Constance was quite the fan of Tennyson, and so if we knew what her art looked like, we could judge whether or not she could join the Neo-Pre-Raphaelites.

1885 brought the Royal Academy and a portrait of Ada, daughter of T Sweet Esq.  She missed 1886 at the RA but returned in 1887 with Study of a Head and "Into that wondrous track of dreams again," another piece based on Tennyson, this time A Dream of Fair Women. Sadly, 1888 saw the very un-Tennysonian Two Pets, but she was back with Alfred in 1889 with "A rosebud set round with little wilful thorns" from The Princess.

In 1890, Building News reviewed the Royal Society of British Artists at Suffolk Street, saying '"Poppy" by Constance E. Plimpton is a clever sketch of a girl's head, full of expression and character.'  Constance also showed three paintings at the Royal Academy, Hugh Stannus Esq, On the Terrace and A Blue Study. In addition to the portrait of Stannus, who might be Hugh Hutton Stannus, the architect, she also submitted two portraits to the RA of 1891 - Mildred, daughter of Ingress Bell (possibly Edward Ingress Bell, another architect) and Molly. It also saw the death of her father, leaving her alone at 23 Lansdowne Road in Lambeth, but not for long. A few months later, she married a fellow artist, John Henry Smith.

1892 was a bit of an interesting year for Constance.  She had three pictures at the Royal Academy, Playtime, two children playing with a kitten and ball, which appeared as a line drawing in The Queen in a review of RA pictures by ladies...

Why have colour when you could have rope-y black and white?  Anyway, Constance also had "Sweet lips, whereon perpetually did reign the Summer calm of golden charity"  from 'Isabel' by Tennyson, and The Audience painted with John Henry Smith.  Well, where did he come from and could you submit paintings as a duo? Benezit is about as much help as you are going to get on John Henry Smith in that he was a painter in the nineteenth century (thanks Benezit, you spoil me) but other sources have him starting his career in the 1850s, so we can guess that he was at least 20 years Constance's senior. Also, searching through census records for the right John Smith is possibly the most hopeless thing you can do. He moved into Lansdowne Road where the couple remained for the rest of the decade. Constance also got another mention in The Queen; they covered the Royal Society of British Artists Winter exhibition, writing 'Miss Constance E Plimpton exhibits an effective painting, both in colour and character in "A Japanese Study."'

In the 1893 Royal Academy exhibition, Constance and John exhibited another joint piece Idle Summer Time and she exhibited alone Sweet Violets, Morning Frolics, and "He is but a landscape painter and a village maiden she," which isn't some sort of autobiographical cry for help but yet another Tennyson piece. The couple also had a daughter, announced in the newspapers - 'July 20, a daughter to Mrs Constance E Plimpton Smith - Eagle's Nest, Clapham Common.' - I think 'Eagle's Nest' is Eagle's House which looks very fancy indeed.

In 1895, Constance's work appeared at an exhibition in Canning Town which had been Percy Alden's dream to bring fine art to the workers. The catalogue had the Ruskin quote 'Life without industry is guilt, and industry without art is brutality' written on the cover.  Constance misses a few Royal Academies until 1897, by which point the family had moved out of London to Greyshott near Haslemere in Surrey. This is reflected in her RA piece Surrey Broom-Maker. She also entered Drawing Room Pets. She also appeared in the Society of Haslemere Artists exhibition - 'women's work holds a creditable place in the exhibition. "An Old Inhabitant" by Mrs Constance E Smith is an interesting and powerful study of a woman's head, the lines in the face telling their tale of a life of toil and care. "Friendly Footsteps" by the same artist is in quite another vein.' (as reported in the Surrey Advertiser)

The family moved to the charmingly named Kit-Cat Cottage in Greyshott in 1899.  Constance only appeared at a few more RAs - in 1898 she showed Quiet Moments and a portrait of Catherine, the daughter of fellow artist Anderson Wells.  In 1899, she submitted one more portrait, Mrs C E Corry Lowry, then finally, in 1900, she showed A Silver King.

That is pretty much all the information I have.  She died on 25 May 1938 - John had died somewhen between 1900 and 1938 but a vast amount of people named John Smith had died in Surrey in that time and today I sadly don't have the wherewithal to go through them all (although I do love that sort of thing).  I also cannot quite fathom the name of her daughter or what became of her. It seems a terrible shame for a woman who did so well and had quite an impressive exhibition record, but the only image by her is that sketchy impression in the Queen. Hers is possibly the sorriest record we will see this month and it is worrying that we are just losing people, but in age of digital technology there is hope.  This is a plea to all collections, both public and private - put your collections on-line, even if you feel more comfortable with a watermark on your pictures.  We will know where the pictures are, whether Constance Eliza Plimpton-Smith was a Neo-Pre-Raphaelite or just a Tennyson junkie and where her works are in readiness for her retrospective.