Friday 8th December - Jessie Macgregor (1846 -1919)

 Here we are at the end of the first full week of Blogvent and almost into double figures.  Today's lady is so prolific and well-illustrated that I am oddly optimistic. She seems to have had a fairly quiet life that revolved around her work, exhibiting from 1873 to 1913, which is 40 years worth of RA pictures to get through! Buckle up for a picture extravaganza to end the week! Say hello to Jessie Macgregor...

Fireside Warmth (1872)

Jessie was born in the autumn of 1846 to Alexander (1820-1898) and Sarah (1820-1894). She had one older brother, Charles and seven younger siblings, including Archibald (1857-1909) who will appear later on.  Handily for young, arty Jessie, her grandfather Andrew Hunt (1791-1861) was an artist and ran the drawing academy in Liverpool.  Her uncle was Alfred William Hunt (1830-1896), who did beautiful landscapes,  and her father was a lithographer (rapidly becoming my favourite job for this Blogvent) so the poor lass was surrounded by art from a young age. By 1855, Alexander and Sarah relocated to London and Jessie was destined for the Royal Academy school where she was taught by Lord Leighton, Philip Homogenised Calderon and John Pettie. Yes, I know that wasn't Calderon's middle name, but it's close enough.

Ralph Creyke (1909)

While at the Royal Academy, Jessie won the gold medal for best historical painting for her piece An Act of Mercy.  Now, if you did art history at school, you too would know that history painting is the best (followed by portraiture, landscape, stil life and right at the bottom 'genre' which means paintings of normal people, yuck).  My favourite report of the prize giving comes from the snide ratbags at Building News (the clarion of truth) who reported that Francis Grant, the President of the RA, gave an address that was 'as usual, feeble and uninteresting' and the remarks he made to each of the prize winners 'when audible, were singularly infelicitous.' Ouch.  However, they finished by saying 'Exception must, however, be made to his complement to Miss Jessie Macgregor ... which had the additional recommendation of being thoroughly deserved.' She was only the second woman to win the award and another would not win the award until 1909.

In 1873, I saw that Miss M S Tovey exhibited a portrait of Miss Jessie Macgregor at the Royal Academy and I wondered if that was our Jessie.  Meanwhile in 1873, Jessie exhibited the splendidly titled "And the Veil of  Thine Head Shall be Grief, and the Crown Shall be Pain"  which the Liverpool Daily Post declared 'a good picture, but difficult to understand.' It would have been handy to have a picture so we could have a go, but it seemed to be a tall lady in black, so it sounds jolly...

Jessie was made an Academician, excuse me a Lady Academician for the Liverpool Academy of Art in 1874 (because obviously Liverpool is more advanced than London, or maybe just a little sooner if you go alphabetically).  The Prescot Reporter wrote a piece on 1875's Liverpool Autumn Exhibit at the Walker, and mentioned Jessie's work Idly Touching the Strings, but said it had no 'ease or grace ... carefully painted but shows no advance on previous works. It is sold.' Someone liked it then.

In the 1876 Royal Academy, Jessie appeared with The Gardener's Daughter and Under a Spell, the latter described as 'powerful and original' by the Liverpool Daily Post. This really heralded her run at the Royal Academy, exhibiting (as we will see) almost every year. I also noticed the newspaper reports of her jump from only a couple a year to considerably more after 1877 which shows the impact of her breakthrough, aged 31. Not everyone needs to be in the '30 under 30' lists to make an mark.

Her piece for the 1877 RA was Service in the Chancel and she also exhibited with the Watercolour Society, showing On the Edge of the Pond, described by the Liverpool Mercury as a 'picturesque, well-selected scene.' In 1879, she had two pictures accepted by the RA, A Crown of Golden Daffodils and May Morning.  Using the RA catalogues, you can see that Jessie splits her time between Liverpool (where she is often described as a 'local artist') and London.  I also like that when her pictures appear in the Royal Academy, Scottish papers such as the Glasgow Herald describe her as a Scottish Lady Painter.  I know her father was Scottish, but being from Liverpool and living in London does not make you a member of the White Heather Club.

By 1880, Jessie had settled into her studio on Elm Tree Road (like Ethel Wright) and had Tick-Tick at the Royal Academy, followed in 1881 with a triple-bill on the subject of The Mistletoe Bough...

The Coffer (1881)

Now, the above image is on the internet as The Coffer but it is patently a scene from The Mistletoe Bough, which I wrote a blog post on in 2011's Blogvent.  It concerns a bride playing hide and seek on the night of her wedding and being trapped in a giant chest and dying.  Happy Christmas! I'm guessing this is the middle image with her wedding and the discovering of her skeleton being the bookends. Smashing.  For 1882, I regret to inform you I am unable to bring you The Wail of the Valkyrs, her picture at the RA, also known as The Valkyr Maidens Weeping the Death of Baldur which was judged 'ambitious' by the Eastern Morning News and 'Scandinavian' by the London Evening News. I look forward to being called both.

I found it interesting that Jessie's RA picture for 1883 Amber first appeared in Liverpool in their 1882 Autumn exhibition.  I was used to the paintings travelling in the other direction (if it didn't sell in London, it went to Liverpool) but being a 'local painter' maybe Jessie had no problem showing Liverpool first.  I also assume that any purchaser in Liverpool would have no problem with their painting also being shown at the Royal Academy afterwards, as that definitely has bragging rights. She also exhibited Lily Worship described as 'an aesthetic picture' by the Cheltenham Examiner and The Wanderings of Freyja (Norse Goddess of Love and Beauty) in search of her husband, Odur the Immortal.  I bet he's a devil at hide and seek.  Anyway, the Cheltenham Examiner remarked that Lily Worship had a great spot on the wall, whereas the other two had been skied.  I think I'd rather have it hanging in Liverpool because it probably had a better chance of being sold if people could actually see it.

By 1884, her brother Archibald, also an artist, was sharing her studio in Elm Tree Road and both of them had pictures in the Academy that May.  Jessie exhibited "For Those in Peril on the Sea" which was very popular as it showed a group of girls singing the hymn round a piano while their mother looks out of the window at a stormy scene, no doubt at their drowning father. It was also popular in the Glasgow Institute exhibition of 1885 where it was considered the best painting in Gallery 2.  She also showed another painting entitled Tick-Tick which I can't imagine was the same picture as 1880, but maybe a similar subject. She finally hit the Royal Academy picture supplement in 1885 with her painting The Twenty Fourth of December...

The Twenty Fourth of December (1885)

She was back in 1886 with two portraits, one of Cedric, Son of Sir Francis Imlach Esq MD and the other a Portrait of a Lady which might be this one...

Portrait of a Lady (?1886)

Sadly, I can't find an image for 1887's "Thro' the brambles and the bracken" Nora, daughter of W B Turner Esq as that sounds like a charming portrait and I'd love to know the context of why Nora is scrabbling through the undergrowth.  Similarly, 1888 Three Little Mates from School could be a play on The Mikado's Three Little Maids From School, but is puzzlingly reported as 'a most successful garden picture' in the North Wales Chronicle, but whatever it was, it was hung on the line, which is an achievement in itself. It also marked Jessie's move from Elm Tree Studios to 10 Hill Road in St John's Wood.

Jephthah - Judges xi.34 (1889)

The large and impressive Jephthah was commissioned by the Corporation of Liverpool and given to the Walker Art Gallery. It was one of two paintings at the RA of that year on the subject of Jephthah's Vow (if he won his battle, he'd sacrifice that first thing he saw when he returned and of course he saw his daughter) and was considered well-drawn but cold in tone.

In the Reign of Terror (1891)

1888 through to the 1890s saw Jessie illustrate Como and Italian Lake Land by T W M Lund which the Publishers Circular judged thus 'The Author is to be congratulated on having been aided by an illustrator of Miss Jessie Macgregor's talents.' Jessie continued her reign at the RA with two more portraits in 1890, Mamie, daughter of W Parker Esq and Miss Henderson, but was back with a history painting In the Reign of Terror in 1891 which the St James' Gazette felt was 'pretty in colour and carefully drawn' but felt she looked too modern to be an 18th century lady fleeing Robespierre. Most newspaper reviews loved the rich red of her dress and I get the impression that the reviewers loved it if they got their money's worth in pretty colours.

The Childhood of Dante (1892)

In 1892, she had two paintings at the RA.  The first was a portrait of Miss Phyllis Eden and the second, In the Childhood of Dante. This was described as 'a fresh bit of Italian Childhood and harmonious colour grouping' by the Western Daily Press. I find it interesting that her portraits are barely, if at all, mentioned, possibly reflecting how unpopular they were in comparison with the narrative works.  Portraits seem to have a decent showing in the RA supplements but there is hardly any mention in the newspapers.  I think Phyllis was Jessie's niece, her sister Ella marrying William Eden in 1870.  It's their address that Jessie used in the RA catalogue until the end of the century.

The black and white images I will be using are from the Royal Academy catalogues, most of which can be perused for free on Archive.com.  Jessie's 1893 RA entry News from Trafalgar came with the subtitle "Officers killed and wounded on board the Ajax, none" - Vide Times, November 7th 1805.  The young lady at the spinning wheel is obviously awaiting news of her beloved and honestly when I heard the title 'News from Trafalgar', I also feared the worst. I think absolutely no losses is a bit optimistic though...

Arrested (1894)

Also, when I heard the title Arrested, I certainly didn't expect this. I turn once more to the Cheltenham Examiner to help.  The subtitle offers some context - Last night Fedora Alexandrovna was surprised at midnight and arrested, leading the viewer to believe the woman is a victim of the oppressive  rule of the Tsar. It's hard to tell with the black and white drawing of the work but the effect of the lamplight was striking and some critics found it too challenging, possibly especially coming from a 'feminine brush' as one newspaper remarked.

Music Sweet as Love (1895)

A girl in a yellow (apparently) robe is sung to by a minstrel boy, with the following lines to explain 'A high born maiden in a palace tower, / Soothing her love-laden soul in secret hour / With music sweet as love' from Shelley's poem 'To a Skylark'. The critics much preferred this romantic piece and one critic named it in his favourite 30 paintings of the Academy.  Only Lady Butler, Elizabeth Forbes and Jessie featured in the list from the women's side and as the Norfolk Chronicle pondered 3 out of 30 seemed a bit stingy.

The Room with the Secret Door (1898)

I did wonder if the death of her parents, Alexander in 1898, Sarah in 1894, as well as the loss of at least one sibling unsettled Jessie's work.  She moves around as well as not exhibiting as many images as she did previously or would do again in the twentieth century. The Queen magazine wrote a rather scathing review of The Room with the Secret Door - 'we have seen far better work form the brush of Miss Jessie Macgregor than her tragic looking maiden, with a hand to her bosom, The Room with the Secret Door (95) a subject that scarcely tells its own story and is not particularly interesting, even when puzzled out.' Ouch. Such mean press did not stop Jessie having her own solo exhibition in May up in Liverpool, admission free, to great success. I wonder if Jessie turned back to her home town when London proved too snippy in its criticism.

The turn of the century saw Jessie exhibit The Silent Requiem: Anno Domini from a new studio at Chalcot Gardens in South Hampstead.  The Liverpool Mercury called the painting 'an important figure subject representing a girl seated at an organ.'  It has an air of pensive preparation for the new century. 1900 also saw the publication of Christmas Eve at Romney Hall...

Described in the Bookseller as a Christmas fantasy of a boy tiptoeing downstairs on Christmas Eve only to find all his favourite fictional characters down in the great hall.  It can accessed here if you fancy a read.

Flight (1901)

Despite making it to the illustrated Royal Academy catalogue for the 1901 exihibition, Flight received no notice in the press, along with her other entry "I Think I'm Sorry".  I was sorry not to find an image of the latter as I'm not sure of the tone at all. They think they are sorry, but are they sure?

I like the thinking behind Jessie's 1902 entry into the RA. For Edward VII's coronation in 1902, she presented the previous holder of the title of King Edward.  The Queen magazine loved it, calling it a 'capital conception' and many other papers felt the small boy king was the perfect subject for the year.  It was interesting that some reviewers talked about the tragedy of his short reign, not thinking about the likelihood of the new King Edward ruling for very long. Maybe that was Jessie's point...

1903's Royal Academy brought four paintings, which is very impressive. Disappointingly, I don't have an image of "Cluck Cluck" which I'm guessing is chickens, Christmas in a Children's Hospital which would have been very seasonal, or Little Bo-Peep, but I do have The Nun. The subtitle is 'if a woman has long hair, it is a glory to her' and the Novice is obviously looking for a way out of having her lovely hair chopped off. The Nun does look fairly determined but not unsympathetic and possibly is mentioning the amount of money the girl will save on conditioner.

1904 saw two more portraits entered into the RA - John Kennedy Esq and Mrs W Brash followed in 1906 with Mrs Edmund Thomas. Jessie got back to history painting with her fantastic flair in The Rush Halo in 1907, which was one of three Joan of Arc pictures that year.  Hers showed Joan as a young shepherdess, tending her sheep while having visions of St Michael which we cannot see.  She also exhibited A Relic of Tudor Times which the Manchester Courier described as 'charming.'

A Great Queen's Vanity (1909)

1909 was the year a woman, Louisa Starr won the Royal Academy gold medal for history painting, the first since Jessie in 1871. Jessie, now in her 60s, brought three more paintings to the May RA exhibition - Mrs Mark Eden (Ella, the wife of Jessie's nephew), A Picturesque Porch and A Great Queen's Vanity. The Gentlewoman saw the latter as a bid for the most successful painting of the season and the Illustrated Sporting and Dramatic News praised the piece's 'cleverness in character drawing'. As she drew on Scandinavian myths for her earlier work, her love of the Tudors shows through in her later years.

1911 saw A Sunless July in the RA and also she gave her position on suffrage to the Vote magazine - 'I do not support the suffrage from merely professional motives, but on a wider basis - the justice of granting to women of all professions the academical honours which they have earned, and which will be withheld from them so long as they are denied the elementary right of citizenship. No facilities for study, however splendid in their results, no distinction in service, whether professional or political, is of any use whilst the sex disability exists, barring her name from 'Birthday' or 'Coronation' honours.'

Hogarth House: View of House and Gardens (1919)

Jessie filled her final years with fewer pictures at the Royal Academy (only two each in 1912 and 1913) and she moved to Bath Road, Bedford Park, not far from Buckingham Palace. She published a book of paintings of  famous gardens in London, Gardens of Celebrities and Celebrated Gardens which she had worked on for years.  It was a success but she was not to see it. She was still close to her sister Ellen, recently widowed, and so when Jessie died in 1919 she left just over £1000 to her.  I think I am left wondering why this successful, medal-winning artist with her 40 year RA career is so under-represented in our national collections and so utterly forgotten. Jessie's protest that women are held back by their lack of franchise is correct but even when they gain the ultimate successes in their fields they still vanish.

As a Christmas-loving artist, she does seem like a perfect choice for this Blogvent and I look forward to hearing more about her.