The Lovely Nonsense of Kate Olver

Excuse my ignorance, but I had no idea that there was such a publication as The Women's Who's Who...

Image taken from Abebooks

In this such illustrious publication I can find 'an annual record of the careers and activities of leading women of the day,' which is quite something and Queen Mary likes it, so who am I to refuse? Anyway, the subject of today's post is mentioned, and it quickly became obvious that it was not the feminist safe-space I was hoping for...

Thank goodness they took the time to tell me who her father and husband were! Phew! Anyway, yes, today's subject is Mrs Charles Higgins, or as she was known to people who bought her paintings, Kate Olver.

Kate was born on 26th May 1881 to Henry Uren (or Wren, both are recorded) Olver and Alice Mary Williams, who had married in 1878. Henry was the son of a perfumier and Alice, the daughter of a stationer, which seem two very lovely professions.  Henry became a Harley Street dentist and manufacturer of 'toilet articles' which I am guessing are either perfumed things or possibly toothpaste related items. Kate was their second child, after Julian Henry (1879-1967). The family lived at 118 Harley Street - I thought it was just medical people who lived in Harley Street, but I see their neighbours were a bit of a mix, including solicitors and other professionals. The houses look very grand and had integral business rooms so you could hold your appointments within your residence. It wasn't all smooth sailing though - in 1892, Henry was declared bankrupt, which is how I also know he was trading out of Oxford Street as well as their home.  This mercifully does not seem to have impacted the family as badly as I would have thought and in 1901, the family is still in Harley Street with Julian working as a dentist with his father.  By this time however, Kate had started art school...

Kate started her art education at Queen's College on Harley Street (very convenient too).  Established in 1848, it was the first British school to give qualifications to women (according to its very lovely website) and Kate went from there to the Royal Academy schools, until her graduation in 1906. She had won the silver medal and prize for her Cartoon of a draped figure in 1905 and I wonder if that drawing was Grief  which the Weekly Times and Echo were selling as prints, calling it 'a suitable Christmas present' in 1907. They refer to her silver medal and call the picture 'universally admired' (which is a bold claim) but Kate's artistic career had begun.

In a Nursery (Kathleen) (1913)

In 1910 her work appeared in a show at Walker's gallery in Bond Street. The review in the St James Budget had this slightly odd remark - 'The work is pleasantly varied and as the ladies are less anxious than most to conceal their sex in it some of the pieces are personal and distinguished.' I think what they mean is that (by the newspaper's interpretation) some of the works were of very 'feminine' subjects, although surely by 1910 we had stopped trying to pretend we are chaps in order to sell paintings? I don't doubt that meant that people would only pay so much for a work by (the horror) a woman. Kate had a good showing at the exhibition, with large oil paintings Mrs R Hughes, Lilies of Death and  Charles Rathbones Esq as well as 11am which was 'a study of a slug-a-bed well inside the room and the frame.' 1910 also saw Kate's debut at the Royal Academy with Dream Days for which I can't find an illustration or any description, unfortunately. That's going to happen a lot...

Illustration from The Baby and the Fire God in Votes for Women 1913

Kate didn't appear in the 1911 RA, but she was at the Paris Salon instead with two portraits, described as showing 'charm and delicacy' by the Pall Mall Gazette. Her next big appearance was at the RA in 1913 with Kathleen, but what made the newspapers was her involvement with the Christmas edition of Votes for Women where she provided illustrations for a piece by Evelyn Sharp entitled 'The Baby and the Fire God'. She also illustrated another story in June the following year and designed a Christmas Card for the paper in 1914, so I'm guessing she was a suffragist, although I can't find much more about her activities beyond art on that front. She had two more paintings at the RA, The Thoughts of Youth and 'Lazy Sheep, Tell Me Why?' - I was particularly struck by the second, which is from a poem by Ann and Jane Taylor (of 'Twinkle Twinkle Little Star' fame) about a child asking sheep why they do nothing.  The sheep answers that they are producing wool to keep the child warm all winter, while the sheep have to try and find food all winter in a chilly brown field. The least they should be allowed is to relax in a warm field after they have been shorn. 

Yvonne Stewart Barnard (1915)

In 1915, Kate was back with two more - Mary Prince in Tchaikowsky's Casse Noisette Suite "The Mystic Measure of Music, and Dance, and Shapes of Light" and Yvonne, daughter of F Stewart Barnard.   Whilst I can't tell you much about Mary Prince in the Nutcracker and her 'shapes of light' (very arty too), I'm pleased to tell you that Yvonne lived until she was 90.  She was 15 when this was painted and her family also lived at Portland Place in London, like the Olvers did at this time, so I wonder if that was how Frank Stewart Barnard contacted her.

Return From the Front, 1916 (1916)

Kate's support of the suffrage movement included her offering 'lightning portrait sketches' at the Christmas sales in 1916 in support of the cause. I always get a bit nervous during the First World War if our subject has a husband/brother of military age. Julian Olver was in his thirties, so up for a bit of marching into gunfire pointlessly, but he seems to have come through unscathed, married to Beatrice with a son Brian and a daughter Patricia and lived to a decent age. Kate was back at the RA in 1917 with 2 entries; Julie and a bronze statuette, The Young Peasant, neither of which made any waves in the papers. 

In 1918, she found a bit of fame, this time with her illustration of a book called Mary's Moving Pictures of Herself and the Others, which Kate 'profusely' illustrated, according to the adverts. The book was written by Hilda Hankey, sister of Donald Hankey, and involved retrospective portraits of childhood.  The official blurb that is attached to all mentions of the book includes this - 'the small figure of the future "Student in Arms" has an individual place" - Student in Arms was the title of Donald's writings about life at the front which seem to have had a fascinating and complicated history. Kate was also back at the RA with Grevile, and again in 1919 with Tanya, neither of which garnered much notice.

Jill (1928)

In 1920, Kate exhibited Rosamond Sylvia Anderton at the RA, a full length figure of a young girl against a background of Chinese drapery, which was greeted warmly as a happy and individual piece. The Gentlewoman liked it so much they included a black and white picture of it - I could only find a bad scan or else I would include it, but there is something a little bit Cooper Gotch about it (I might be entirely wrong in colour). Little Rosamond appears to have had an interesting life, ending up as Lady Barlow, then marrying a curate after her first husband died in a plane crash, before dying at the age of 95. Kate also appeared again at Walker's on Bond Street in a women-only exhibition which was successful and 'well worth visiting' according to the Hanwell Gazette and Brentford Observer.

Sketch for Mercia (1933)

1921's RA featured another portrait, this time of Mercia, daughter of Mr and Mrs Thomas Fordham. Mercia (1914-1975) was the daughter of a copper engraver from Wimbledon, so I'm not sure what the link was to Kate but maybe they were just a wealthy family who wanted a portrait of their daughter. The family must have remained in touch as Mercia was the subject of a portrait in 1933 (possibly for her 'coming out'), a sketch of which was given to the Russell-Cotes Art Gallery in 1961. In 1922, Kate had two works - Songs of Innocence and In a Looking-Glass. I wondered if the first was connected to Blake, but the Gentlewoman describes it as two children in a hammock in plein air effect, and the second was a self portrait. Interestingly, at the RA Winter exhibition, Kate brought out the statuette of the peasant again, which garnered a mention in the Vote newspaper (unlike the first time it appeared).

From A Child's Garden of Verse (1927)

In 1925, Kate exhibited Lovely Nonsense (which is what I put as my job title) which I'm afraid I can't tell you anything about as it got no press coverage at all. The 1920s were quieter from this point, but possibly because Kate was working on a reissue of Robert Louis Stevenson's A Child's Garden of Verse which was published in 1927, bringing the illustrations up to date with little moppets with bobbed hair. As a side note, there have been so many versions of this book since its first publication in 1885, many of them illustrated by women, that you could probably write a book on that alone.

The Artist's Husband (undated)

In 1928, Kate exhibited Myths and Legends and Jill (possibly Jill Norris, who she also painted later in life) at the Royal Academy and in 1930 she showed Coup de Printemps, none of which got any coverage. Meanwhile, Kate had become Mrs Charles Samson Higgins, after marrying a fellow artist in June 1927.  Higgins was 12 years her junior, born in Buenos Aires to a Scottish Engineer and his wife, and was an author (writing as Ian Dall) as well as painting under the pseudonym 'Pic.' He had trained as an engineer, but also attended Slade School of Art, before joining the army for the Great War and was wounded during the Dardanelles campaign at Gallipoli. After the couple's marriage they moved to Barra in the Outer Hebrides. 

Barra (1930)

Obviously, Kate and Pic still kept a London address, Norfolk Road in St John's Wood, which was listed in the RA catalogues (where she still appeared as Miss K Olver).  In 1931 she was back with Willows in Spring followed by Baile a' Chaisteil, a Scottish coastal scene with a cattle market, the year after. Around this time she used a model called 'Carmen' in a few different paintings, including Casque d'Or (or Golden Helmet) referring to her golden cropped hair...

Carmen (undated)

Casque d'Or (c.1930)

There is another picture of Carmen but I can only find a bad picture of a print of it, but I always find it interesting when a painter returns to a model, especially in the case of Kate who was more of a portraitist. This is also true of her return to Mercia Forham in 1933, but that might have been financially motivated by her parents.  Kate's other painting from 1933 was to become one of her most talked about in her career. Eyes caused a stir for being impressionistic, what Kate referred to as a 'Painter's picture' and being the Daily News' picture of the RA that year. It fascinated the viewers as they looked at a painting of four Hebridean children with pale eyes staring back at them. It was called 'curious' and 'well handled' with the News Chronicle photographing her in front of it and calling it 'remarkable.' Of course we have no image of it. T'uh.

Portrait of a Girl (c.1930)

Whilst not at the RA in 1934, Kate did appear in the Society of Women Artists show with Strangers, reported to be in much the same vein as Eyes, featuring a group of children staring out at the viewer,  In 1935 she exhibited a portrait of Jane and Susan, the daughters of Douglas Lyall Grant and a painting called Perina. The portrait of the two little girls is interesting as in no reference to the painting in the press was it noted that Jane and Susan were her nieces, as Douglas was married to Jane Higgins, sister of Pic. Douglas had been a widowed merchant banker who married also widowed Jane (a war widow) in 1922 and Jane (1927-2010) and Susan (1930-2025) were their daughters who would be 8 and 5 years old at the time of their portrait.

Musicians (1936)

In 1936, Kate's painting of Musicians featured in the Royal Society of Portrait Painter's exhibition and was praised in the Daily News. Her portraits in the Royal Academy that year were Richard and Anthea, children of William Haigh Pyman and Jean and Angela, the daughters of Pre-Raphaelite collector Kerrison Preston. The year after, Musicians appeared at Hull's art gallery where it was praised - 'Out of this harmony character speaks - in a different voice for each of the two girls.' She also had two paintings at the RA - A Quiet Corner and a portrait of her husband under his writer's name, Ian Dall. She also had a portrait of Miss Eleanor Nicholas in the 1938 RA.  Interestingly, the newspapers in the 1930s noted the rise of women artists at the RA during this time, mostly without any connotation and to be honest it should not have been too much of a surprise given how many men died just over a decade before.  Also, looking through the RA catalogues of this period it is in no way a feminist white-wash of the old guard, so everyone needs to calm down.  I think the excellence of artists like Laura Knight and Dod Proctor just made women more visible to the critics.

Ian Dall Leis A' Phiob (Artist's husband with bagpipes) (1939)

In 1939, Kate revisted her nieces, this time adding older brother Gavin to a portrait of Jane and Susan Lyall Grant. Douglas Gavin Lyall Grant (1925-1999) was known as Gavin so avoid confusion with his father, and the children were pictured in a nursery. She also exhibited with the Society of Women Artists and again showed her portrait of her husband 'Ian Dall Leis A Phiob' (which a paper said 'whatever that means' - Good Lord, lazy journalists, the man is in a kilt, ask a bloody Scotsman.  It means 'with bagpipes'.) The following year she exhibited Scherzo and a portrait of the sculptor Ruth Swann's daughter Lola Gwendolen Ann Swann.  As war was upon us again, Kate also contributed to an exhibition in aid of the Spitfire fund. In the 1939 register, the couple had moved out to Buckinghamshire, and were living in Northall.  Irritatingly, in the register, Charles is listed as an author and Kate is 'unpaid domestic duties.' Sigh.

Woman in a Kimono with Camelias (undated)

There is a distinct slowing in Kate's output during the war, with 1941 being a bit of an annomely in terms of the RA, where she had two paintings - Siesta and a picture of their house Restharrow, Northall, nr Dunstable. I'm interested in her 1942 RA entry, To The North Pole, which could either be a throw back to the polar explorers of the previous generation or, less likely, something to do with the on-going Artic operations of the Second World War. Similarly, I have no notion what The End of the Story could relate to - possibly something as literal as someone finishing a book or something more metaphoric. Kate also did a presentation portrait of Charles Kilby for his services to agriculture in Leighton Buzzard in 1944, one of the her last appearances in the newspaper. 

For her final RA in 1946, she went out with three paintings; one of her husband, entitled Pic, one of Fisher Girls returning in the Outer Hebrides and one entitled Boulevard Magenta d'Avent Guerre (Boulevard de Magenta before the War), which might be a comment either on how beautiful it was when Kate last visited or how beautiful it was before the fighting. I think at this point, now in her 60s, Kate seems to have gone into semi-retirement, only producing occasional portraits and living quite happily with Pic in Buckinghamshire and Scotland.

Jill Norris (1951)

Kate died in 1960, in the hospital in Paddington, London and was cremated in London. Pic lived on for another 20 years, finally dying in 1980.  Of all the artists I've researched, I'm struck with how little information there is on Kate, despite her working constantly and appearing regularly at the Royal Academy.  Kate Olver shows there is no guarentee of fame or public appreciation, no matter how successful you are. However, here we are over sixty years after Kate's death; no matter how unappreciated she was in her lifetime, we are here talking about her, so maybe her time is yet to come.