The Other Pyke-Nott Girl

 You might well remember back in 2023 I wrote about Mrs Byam Shaw, otherwise known as the artist Caroline Evelyn Eunice Pyke-Nott (better known as Evelyn). At the time, I mentioned her sister, Isabel and I always meant to return to her. Well, three years later, here we are.  Meet Isabel Codrington...

Isabel Codrington (Mrs Paul Konody) (1909) Philip de László

Yes, she dispensed with the Pyke-Nott business, hence many people don't link her to the Byam Shaw circle, but as Byam Shaw is a bit of an obsession of mine, I am delighted to rope her in. Plus her art is amazing. Let's start at the beginning.

As I said in this post about sister Evelyn, the Pyke-Nott/Nott-Pyke family were from Swimbridge in Devon. Isabel was the youngest of the five (surviving) siblings, born 27th January 1873, three years younger than Evelyn (and 2 years younger than Edmund, her nearest sibling). There is also a final sibling, Adrian Stephen, who was born and died in short order in 1882. Seeing as the eldest Pyke-Nott child was well into his teens at this point, it must have been a distressing time in the family when the final baby died. Like her sister, Isabel attended Hasting and St Leonard's School of Art, plus a year at St John's Wood Art School before finally attending the Royal Academy Schools. Isabel was only 15 years old at the RA which is impressive. In 1893 she achieved 2 medals, coming first in both painting a draped figure (a category only open to female students) and  for a painting of a head from life, described in the Lady's Pictorial as 'a very bold and strong, if somewhat hard, profile study.' It seems that the Lady's Pictorial was a good friend for Isabel, mentioning her student work regularly in the 1890s, alongside that of her sister, so sometimes it can be a little confusing which 'Miss Pyke-Nott' is being mentioned. Evelyn started RA exhibiting earlier (obviously) but in 1896, both Pyke-Nott girls were there.  What I found interesting is that Evelyn's address is 4 St Edmund's Terrace, Regent's Park and Isabel's address is 4 St Edmund's Terrace, Primrose Hill - what a coincidence that they both live in street's named St Edmund's Terrace! I might be reading into it but possibly it was the first sign that Isabel needed a little individuality...

The Bath (1920s)

Isabel's picture in 1896 was A Vintage (mentioned in the LP, obvs) which was described in the Daily Telegraph in glowing terms - 'There are few, if any, prettier or more harmoniously balanced designs to be seen this year at Burlington House than Miss Isabel Pyke-Nott's "A Vintage" done in that fan shape which provides so many pleasing puzzles for the designer to overcome.' In 1897, the Pyke-Nott siblings were in full force at the RA, with not two but three members of the household present! Isabel had two paintings on show - firstly "I curled and combed his comely head, He look so grand when he was dead" which was based on the Tennyson poem 'The Sisters,' quoting a woman talking of her murder of an unfaithful lover. The World  felt this piece was full of promise but that the head on the girl's knee was too big and the paper remarked that in general they disliked when paintings had only quotes for titles as it was a bit pretentious and made it hard to talk about them (as the title took up too much of the column). Her second painting was Iduna and the Eagle, from the Norse myth of the goddess Iduna being kidnapped by Thiazi disguised as an eagle...

Iduna and the Eagle (1897)

Her work at this point is very Frampton-esque, very third generation Pre-Raphaelite-Adjacent, Neo-Pre-Raphaelite, post-Burne-Jones, powder-soft loveliness. I have to add that her siblings that year were very family focused with Evelyn showing a portrait of Isabel and James exhibiting a portrait of their mother. The Evening Mail noticed that Evelyn's picture was of her sister-artist and there was a lot of love for the Pyke-Nott family all round. This was reflected in Byam Shaw's painting of his beloved Evelyn in the guise of the Queen of Hearts, with sister Isabel in the background proffering a plate of jam tarts....

The Queen of Hearts (1896) Byam Shaw

By 1898, Byam Shaw had made his mark and his more formal portrait of Evelyn was being mentioned quite a lot. Ladies Field had a very suave photo of him attached to an article about his painting technique. Despite Isabel's two paintings at the RA that year, Reverie and Circe, her soon to be brother-in-law got all the mentions, not least because the press were not quite sure what to make of his portrait of Evelyn.

That was not going to improve in 1899. The Lady's Pictorial had a column on the Byam Shaw wedding complete with the above little vignette. Thanks to this article, we know Isabel was wearing a white muslin over silk dress with pink sash and white Trelawny hat (no, I don't know either) with ostrich feathers, and pink roses under the brim. Interestingly, Isabel didn't have any pictures at the RA that year (her sister had two which were pleasingly mentioned in some of the marriage articles). At the turn of the century, Isabel was back, but her address was Porlock in Somerset where her brother James and mother (I won't say parents, for reasons that will become apparent) had moved to. She was still there in 1901 when she married Paul Konody...

Paul George Konody (1920) William Roberts

Budapest-born Konody was a journalist (as had been his father before him) and had been naturalised in 1894, aged 22 after moving in 1889.  Among his interests was art history, with a specific interest in the Renaissance (he has his own Wikipedia page) so it was art that drew the couple together. Their wedding was the biggest thing to hit Porlock in many a year, reported in great detail in the West Somerset Free Press (everyone's favourite newspaper, obviously). The groom, the editor of the Artist magazine, made his arrival at a few minutes to midday, while Isabel arrived, accompanied by the choir singing 'The voice that breathed o'er Eden.' She wore a dress of crepe de chine over white silk, with her veil held in place by a 'wreath of orange blossoms.' She carried lilies, white roses and orange blossoms, and her jewellery was modelled by 'G M Borglum' - John Gutzon Mothe Borglum was the sculptor responsible for Mount Rushmore, but for a short period between 1896 and 1902 he had a studio in West Kensington, not far from where the Konodys would move after their marriage. Their honeymoon was spent in Florence, of course.

The Green Bowl (undated)

I have a couple of questions - Isabel was given away by her brother, even though her father was alive until the 1920s and living in Devon (not Porlock).  There is also an entirely other family he suddenly inherits after the death of his wife in 1914, but he might be pretending to be in the family already in the 1911 census where he (possibly) appears as John Ellis (the woman he goes on to marry in 1918 is Lucy Ellis) who has another family of children Arthur, Edith and Mabel. What a pickle, but hold that thought as the apple did not fall far from that tree.

Anyway, Isabel doesn't appear at the RA again until 1903 (as Miss Pyke-Nott, of 17 Wellesley Mansions, West Kensington) but in the meantime she is busy enough, thank you very much, with the arrival of Pauline Evelyn Melisande Konody, born 27 September 1902. Isabel's painting of 1903's RA was Melisande which, as it depicts a mysterious woman embroiled in a love triangle, I thought an odd subject for a post-honeymoon painting (hold that thought) but I'm guessing it was connected with her daughter - possibly she felt inspired so much by the 1893 Symbolist play, she both named her baby and did a painting.

In 1904, at the Groupil Gallery, 5 Regent Street, Isabel exhibited a series of miniature landscapes on ivory of the Italian Lakes, described as delicate and dainty in their execution and colouring. In a similar Italian theme, she exhibited Main Street, Isola di Pescatori, Maggiore at the Royal Society of Miniature Painters exhibition in 1906. Another miniature to arrive in 1906 was a second daughter, Margaret Elvira Louise in March of that year. By the time she reappeared at the Royal Academy in 1908, the family were living at 20 Hornton Court in West Kensington, with Isabel listed as 'Nott, I.C.P. (Miss)' in the RA catalogue. Her picture that year was A Garden near Pallanza, still reflecting her love of Italy.

Evening (1920s)

The 1911 census shows the family in their charming West Kensington home with two servants, Emma Thomas (a nurse for the children) and May Hancock, their cook. Paul is listed as an art critic and Isabel has no occupation, which drives me insane.  However, around a year later, the couple got divorced.

In the divorce papers from April 1912 (you know how much I love divorce papers), Paul Konody, the petitioner, stated that his wife was now living at Whistler's Wood in Surrey (apparently so named because Whitler used a gazebo there as a studio, however also spelt 'Wistler's Wood' so who knows?) and all through January, she had been shacked up in the Hyde Park Hotel with a man called Gustavus Mayer.

Gustavus Mayer was an art dealer from Hoboken, New Jersey, but had also lived in Switzerland, Germany, Russia and Austria. By 1911, he was living with his sister Helen at St James Street, Picadilly. Like with her husband, it's presumable that Isabel met Gustavus through art, he might even have bought some of her work in his role as a partner in the famous Bond Street dealers Colnaghi & Co. Paul Konody divorced Isabel and retained full custody of their daughters. Isabel and Gustavus settled in Whistler's Wood and married with absolutely no fanfare or orange blossom in 1913. What I would very much like to know is if she saw Pauline and Margaret regularly, if at all, until they were adults. The girls were sent to boarding school at the Convent of the Sacred Heart in Tunbridge Wells, founded in 1915, where they appear on the census in 1921, but I'll come back to them later...

Back to the art! Isabel reappeared at the Royal Academy in 1914 with A Duke of Old Italy, giving her address as 34 Bruton Place, Berkeley Square, her London address that she used as a studio to store and lend paintings from. She was still Miss Isabel Pyke-Nott, so that raised a question - I was wondering when Isabel Pyke-Nott, or Mrs Paul Konody, or Mrs Gustavus Mayer became Isabel Codrington. After a few quiet-ish years, Isabel Codrington made her debut at the Royal Academy in 1918 with The Haunted Room. There is no mention (that I could find) of her work in the newspapers that year, but in 1919, her painting The Tavern was frequently mentioned in the reports of both the RA and anywhere else she exhibited it. When it appeared at Liverpool (the autumn exhibition, arguably equal in importance to the RA's May show) the Liverpool Daily Post was full of praise for this 'capable work' from 'an artist little known as yet' - she had pulled off a reinvention. Not only that, I noticed that the praise for The Tavern was more than anything Miss Pyke-Nott had achieved, so Isabel stepped into her Codrington Era and never looked back.

Cantine Franco-Britannique, Vitry-le-Francais (1919)

The new decade brought Isabel a lot of coverage.  To start with, her painting of Cantine Franco-Britannique, Vitry-le-Francais was acquired by the Imperial War Museum after it appeared in their 1920 exhibition of war paintings. At the RA in 1920 she exhibited The Fruit Sellers, much admired by The Gentlewoman who described it thus - 'A far more subtle bit of drama and an even finer bit of handling is Miss Isabel Codrington's "Fruit Sellers" [which they illustrated on the following page]; this is quite the most dramatic rendering of expression and character in the exhibition,' and they went on to describe it as 'a real achievement of paint and passion.' The Surrey Advertiser found it a little sombre but felt it fully justified its place on the line (as we know, the line is the best place to be placed in the gallery as you are not going to be 'skied' or dangled out of view of the viewer.)

The Tavern (1921)

By the 1921 census, Byam Shaw had died (I'm still not over it) and so Evelyn Byam Shaw was staying with Isabel and her new husband, as was brother James, all looked after by four servants. Isabel's 1921 RA piece, A Southern Still Life, drew a lot of attention (according to the Surrey Advertiser who were keen to report on all Surrey-related oils at the RA). It was a still life with figures, a format that she excelled in, as we will see, this time featuring a bottle and pan on a table, with two figures playing drafts in the background. She also had a painting chosen by the Canadian National Exhibition for the Toronto Art Gallery, The Tavern, which is apparently similar to how the Chantry Bequest bought paintings for the Tate, although I can't seem to locate it in any of the on-line catalogues of Canadian collections. 

In 1922, Isabel's still life was making waves at the Grosvenor summer show. The Daily Express wrote a fascinating article in support of their Daily Express Women's Exhibition at Olympia, which I feel a whole post could be written about, but suffice to say, Isabel was there. The Daily Express rightfully (cough) say that up until 1910-ish, women didn't do art (apart from Rosa Bonheur and Lady Butler, obvs) and those that had a go were rightly derided. However, nowadays, ladies seem to have developed the strength in their little lady hands to hold a paintbrush and so hurrah all round. It was naturally noted that women can't be as good as someone like Sargent, however they have a good go at it. The fact that one of the selectors of these paintings was Laura Knight, one of Britain's best painters, seems to have missed the Express in terms of irony, but she was joined by William Orpen and, interestingly, Paul Konody. That must have been an awkward preview night...

1923 saw Isabel's painting The Witch's House feature in Tatler. She also presented this painting to the art gallery in Hull (now called the Ferens Art Gallery) while it was hanging in an exhibition there...

Still Life, Vegetables (1923)

She again appeared in the Daily Express Lady Pictures Exhibition, which I gather was part of a much larger event at Olympia including fashion and make-up and all other things for women. I haven't ever really thought about the shift in market to women after all the men got shot in the previous decade, but I suppose this is the beginning of the 'pink pound' and the idea that women could be massive consumers to be taken seriously (even if you are being a bit patronising about their art at the same time). At the Grosvenor Gallery this year, Isabel showed The Blouse Shop...

The Blouse Shop (1923)

I don't know what it is about Isabel's work that makes it so instantly familiar, but this is a highlight. We know what is being said, what is going on, the dynamic between these three women. The colours are glorious and the glints of light are lovely, but there is something very modern about the scene.  Not only is it a picture of women going about their lives without men, but also three very un-idealised women.  Although you can see the big step Isabel had taken away from her Neo-Pre-Raph roots, I would merrily argue that this is not that big a step from something like Millais' Christ in the House of his Parents (1849-50) where the very 'common-ness' (for want of a better word) of his models caused a panic. Here, the women are recognisably three ordinary women but it is, of course, artifice, the invention of an artist's mind. 

She was back at the RA in 1924 with The Old Land Worker, described by the Sutton and Epson Advertiser as 'a relentless piece of realism' which I'm guessing wasn't meant in an entirely complementary way. 1925 brought a piece about her art, with illustrations, to The Studio, and another exhibition in Hull displayed one of her more controversial paintings. I wish I could find an image of Birds of Prey as it sounds extraordinary and raised a few eyebrows in the newspapers, especially as it had been a woman who painted it - a youth is being robbed by a man while a woman looks on smoking a cigarette. Tatler announced her work to be 'as essentially masculine in its sincerity and determination as the work of Brangwen and Epstein; but it is profoundly classic in style.'

The Kitchen (1927)

It is interesting how her honesty is seen to be masculine, but her focus is more often than not on feminine spaces, but I'll come to that. 1926 brought An Old Man Reading to the Royal Academy, described by The Sphere as 'a little gem of light manipulation.' She also had a portrait of Mrs Sarah Bonwick at the Royal Society of Portrait Painters. A year later, Isabel had a solo show at the Fine Art Society in April, with her exquisite painting the Kitchen appearing at the Royal Academy in May. The Aberdeen Press found the painting to be filled with humour and ability and the Birmingham Daily Post described it as 'a gay study,' which puzzles me slightly as I've always felt the piece to be melancholic.  Mind you, the Birmingham review describes the scene as a table containing a cabbage, a couple of biscuit tins, a box of matches and some bottles. Luckily, I know who owns The Kitchen now - it's the Russell-Cotes, so I conferred with Mr Walker and the archive.  The painting was received directly from Isabel herself in the 1930s after she had exhibited some of her works in their exhibition. She wrote that the collection at the RC made her uncomfortable because it was old fashioned (excuse me? Bold words from a former Neo-Pre-Raph, madam) but that the curator was making in-roads to add appropriate modern pieces (hence why the RC has an exceptional 20th century collection as well). The piece she gave them was indeed the 1927 painting above that had been at the Royal Academy, so I'm not sure what the Birmingham reviewer was looking at. Possibly this one?

The Caller (1922)

We have our cabbage and box of matches but no biscuit tins, but do you see what I was saying earlier about her being the absolute master of still-life-foreground, people-background paintings? Also feminine spaces, especially interiors. Gorgeous. Anyway, The Kitchen had a name change in 1932 when Isabel started calling it The Window and it is also known as At the Kitchen Window and is currently on show at a gorgeous exhibition at the Russell-Cotes on interiors, so you can go and have a look yourself at its loveliness. Anyway, onwards!

Caroline (1927)

Tatler also featured her portrait Caroline in a full colour page spread, and I was instantly reminded of the 1970s Brotherhood of Ruralists, it is so timeless. 

The Old Tramp (1928)

In 1928, Oldham Art Gallery purchased The Old Tramp from Isabel, which the Evening News reported was the 10th painting purchased by a public collection - seeing as ArtUK only has 8 listed, I wonder what happened to the other two. The Old Tramp had been previously exhibited at the Paris Salon and the Royal Society of Portrait Painters. Isabel also had two paintings at the Royal Academy, The Lumber Room and The Match Seller. This increased interest in her work led inevitably to an interview with the artist herself. While researching this post, I noticed that there was an accepted narrative about Isabel that was never challenged - that she married, had children, gave up painting until her children were grown, took up painting again - which simply isn't true and I wondered where it came from. Now I know - I will condense it thus:

Isabel told the Western Morning News, 16th May 1928: I was raised in Devon, but we have since sold the family home (true) Joined the RA at 15 (true) married and gave up painting for 18 years (ummm...) began painting again once her children were grown (well, technically but also no...) I felt I could only start painting again if I had a studio so my husband built me one (would that be second husband?) which was in 1918. I had forgotten how to paint entirely (had you though?) and had to learn all over again but miraculously it worked and now I am super famous (well, okay, I'll give you the last bit). 

The piece then goes on to say that Isabel specifically picked working-class people to model for her because they are interesting, but they can't afford to buy her portraits of them.  If she painted rich people instead, who could afford to 'boom' the artist (whatever that means), she would 'rank in the forefront of English portrait painting.'

Isabel controlled her narrative and I can understand why as being the accused party in a divorce and losing the custody of your daughters would not make you sympathetic in the 1920s public eye, so she omits details and shapes how the other parts sit and by the end of the 1920s, Isabel Codrington (the brand) was doing great business. Not only that, in 1928 Pauline Konody, 'daughter of a famous mother' (as the Western Morning News wrote) had her own exhibition at Claridges Gallery in London.

Summer Mist (undated) Pauline Konody

Pauline made her RA debut in 1926 with Beech Trees and In the Beech Wood, but had already been the subject of a Royal Academy painting when Anna Airy exhibited a portrait Pauline Konody, daughter of P G Konody Esq in the 1916 exhibition. I couldn't find that one, but I did find  one by Laura Knight.

Pauline (undated) Laura Knight

Isabel's paintings in the 1929 RA were A Vagrant and Zillah Lee, Hawker. I wonder what it was that drew Isabel back to these figures - the contrast with the normally smooth-faced privileged types that normally featured in portraits (herself and daughter included)? The amount of character and experience in their faces and the challenge of capturing that on canvas? Anyway, in the same year, Pauline had The Kingfisher and Chrysanthemums at the RA and gave her address as Wistler's Wood, obviously now living with her mum. I have to admit, I did not know how Isabel's relationship with her daughters went after she left, but I was pleased to see that they were together, Pauline in her 20s, Isabel in her late 50s.

 The Beggars are Coming to Town (1930)

Isabel's subject for the 1930 RA was the nursery rhyme 'Hark, hark the dogs to bark, the beggars are coming to town. Some in rags, some in jags, some in velvet gowns.' The Sunday Express called it a 'fearless acceptance of the pathos of poverty.' The Daily Express used the picture to make a rather unpleasant modern political point - the beggars these days are increasing in number because of the Labour government, elected the year before, who preferred foreign workers who charge less, putting good, honest English men out of work. Hmm, nothing changes. The Mitcham Advertiser expanded on the subject, saying the central figure, in his faded finery, reaches out his hands helplessly (I'm guessing he is blind) and all around are 'types of deformity and moral dross' - how the poor are poor because of how immoral they are (demonstrating how easily we slip into that sort of objectionable view when times get tough). The woman in the velvet gown causes some consternation - is she beautiful because beauty exists even in squaller? Is she beautiful because immorality can wear a beautiful face? Is she beautiful because everything else is so ugly? Needless to say, this painting seemed to touch a nerve of something unpleasant in the nation's psyche.

Morning (1932)

1931 saw The Blouse Shop at an exhibition in Wales and appearing as a picture in the Herald of Wales. Isabel also appeared at the Southport Spring Exhibition, listed under the 'younger women painters' in a review in the Liverpool Daily Post - at almost 60, I'm sure she was delighted to read that (as I am delighted to write it). 1932 saw Isabel's (arguably) best known work, Morning, appear with little fanfare in the spring exhibition in Bradford. The realism of the loaf of bread was mentioned in the Yorkshire Post review, but little else was said and the painting was given by Isabel to the Royal Albert Memorial Museum in Exeter in 1934. I find it both lovely but also disquieting because it reminds me of two other paintings.  I'm obviously reminded of Dod Procter's 1926 Morning, which actually has sleepiness in common with another of Isabel's paintings, Drowsy Summer Days (1935)

Morning (1926) Dod Procter

Drowsy Summer Days (1935)

Beautiful canvases all, and the 1935 work appeared in the Royal Academy as Isabel's last outing there. However, Morning also reminds me of this...

The Camden Town Murder (c.1908) Walter Sickert

Bear with me. something about the arm of the woman, hanging out of the bed, looks a little less than natural. Her green pallor, the sliced up food, the knife and the tear in the tablecloth all make me very uncomfortable. I was reminded of the murder of Dolly Henry which possibly would have been still talked about in Isabel's art circle. Like some of her other works, there is definitely a disquieting undertone to her painting, which is genius if intentional, or really, really interesting if unconscious.

 

1934 saw Isabel, now in her 60s, exhibiting some etchings - I have seen people write that after 1930 she concentrated on etchings, which isn't entirely true as she was still producing and exhibiting her paintings although etchings were now in her rotation. At the RA she showed At the Window, which was the kitchen window painting again under a different title. Well done Isabel for double-dipping! She also had an etching of The Coming Storm in the same exhibition. 1935 saw not only Drowsy Summer Days but also a very popular flower exhibition, and a rather hilarious newspaper article - The Western Morning News ran an expose of Miss Codrington and how they had discovered that she was actually Miss Pyke-Nott! With a picture (above)! It also said that her brother and sister were also famous in the artistic world - her brother Richard (I think you mean James, who had a couple of RA hits in the 1930s) and sister, Mrs Glen Byam Shaw (I think you mean mother to Glen Byam Shaw). Interestingly, the article is based on an interview, so either the journalist wasn't listening or Isabel was giving another version of events. Anyway, she said 'Ever since I was very small, in fact as far back as I can remember, painting has been my great amusement in life.' She talked about the influence of fairytales and folklore from Devon on her work. She completely misses out her first marriage and daughters and talks about her career (which I expect most male artists would have done too, so I can't blame her). 

After that point, the newspaper articles tail off. The 1939 register sees her alone in Bath in a boarding house, possibly on holiday as a retired person living on own means, with Gustavus still at home in Wistler's Wood. She died on 24th September 1943 in a house called 'Canberra' in Minehead (it still exists and I wonder if it was a private nursing home), 70 years old. In her short will she left everything to her daughters.

Last Rays (no date)

There is no doubt in my mind as I finish this post that Isabel Codrington is one of the best and most interesting artists of the early twentieth century. She embraced Neo-Pre-Raphaelitism and Realism, but more than that, her subjects speak to us in a very modern way. The working-class subjects, the fear of poverty but still looking straight at it, the spaces between things and people, and the women alone or in groups negotiating life after the war. Her father's desertion of the family is unhappily repeated in her own adultery, and she even gave her daughter the middle name 'Melisande' the unhappy, love-triangle heroine. Both Isabel's daughters, Pauline and Margaret, lived long lives, Pauline married to a Birmingham policeman, Margaret dying at the grand old age of 94.  

If you own any Isabel paintings, please get in touch with me at stonellwalker@googlemail.com as I'd love to see if we could arrange a retrospective. Just think what an amazing, complicated and modern exhibition that would be...

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.

The Many Flowers of Evelyn Grace Ince

Occasionally in my research meanderings, I come across an artist who is not only talented but also not afraid to get out there and show her stuff. A little known fact about me is that before I was a rambling Art Historian, I was a rambling Poet who published her first (and no doubt most awful) poems aged 18. At the time I imagined I was Sylvia Plath.  Reader, I was not. However, through getting published in a minor literary magazine I got the courage to write other stuff and so here we are.  This all leads me to today's subject, Evelyn Grace Ince...

Miss Ince was born in 1886 in Bengal, India.  Her father, the Reverend John Cook Ince was Irish and her mother Sarah had been born in Bengal but sent back to England for her education, before returning to marry (in much the same way as the Pattle sister did, but they went to France). Sarah's father had been a missionary and tutor to the Sultan of Johor, so I wonder if it was religion that brought them together.  Anyway, they married in the April of 1865 and four daughters followed over the next 20 years - Eliza Gertrude (1866-1945), Mabel Emily (1870-1941), Alice Caroline (1873-1947) and last but not least Evelyn Grace (1886-1941).  As Sarah was well into her 40s at that point, I can only imagine that little Evelyn was somewhat of a surprise, twelve years younger than her nearest sister. By 1891, the family had moved to England, to the Isle of Wight to be exact, where they were living at Gloucester House in Northwood, apart from Sarah.  Somewhen between the birth of her youngest daughter and 1891, Sarah had died, leaving John a widower.  This possibly precipitated the move to England, the vicar and his daughters aged between 5 and 24 years old.

Autumn Harmony (no date)

By 1901, the family were still all together, now aged between 15 and 34. Reverend Ince was the vicar at Gurnard on the Wight and in 1901 a newspaper piece recorded how the Ince girls decorated the church, Evelyn dressing the windows. Evelyn had decided her future lay in the arts, in writing to be exact at that point and on 7th March 1903, she became an Associate Member of the Gentlewoman's Children's Salon where she won the Associate Prize for literature under the category of 'loneliness.' I would be remiss if I didn't publish the poem in full, obviously...

LONELINESS

Upon the pond's green mossy bank

There stood a goose sedate,

Gazing into its murky depths,

And thinking on his fate.

He thought on when, in bygone days,

They all were goslings fair,

And frolicked in that self-same pond,

Without a thought or care.

But one by one they'd disappeared

And never more were seen,

And he alas! was left alone,

To nurse his sorrow keen.

Thus musing on his loneliness,

He does not heed the gay

Whistle of Farmer Jones who comes,

And carries him away.

Now, although on the face of it, it's about a sad goose (not one of nature's more poetic creatures), it's also about death - the death of loved one and your own and how short life is so don't waste it.  Is the inference that the Farmer ate all his siblings and has finally come for Sad Goose? Farmer Death seems awfully chipper but it's nice someone is happy in his work, plus he has goose for dinner again. Let's move on from goose-base existential dread...

Mary Mary (no date, 1930s)

It appears that the Gentlewoman magazine liked to nurture the young writers and became an outlet for Evelyn's writing. In June, she received an honourable mention for her amusing verse about a cat. Evelyn wrote another piece and submitted it for feedback which she received via 'Levana's Letter Box' in September 1903 - 'Evelyn Ince - Very fair; in fact the plot is quite good, only you have not worked it out very well.' In the November she received another honourable mention in the Autumn competition, but she also began submitting art work, receiving an honourable mention for her design for a calendar as well as for her verse on Michaelmas Day. In 1904 she won for both art and literature and received feedback for her essay which Levana assured her was not nonsense and was decidedly original and clever.

Dorothea Bay MacGlagan (no date)

Thanks to a very helpful biography here, we know that in 1911, Evelyn applied herself very seriously to art and attended the Byam Shaw and Vicat Cole School of Art.  I can only imagine that she stayed in London during the terms and returned to the Wight for holidays, where she was caught by the 1911 census, listing her (and her sister Mabel) as artists in black and white. All the sisters were still single (and would remain so) and living at home with their father.  Evelyn remained at the school until 1916 when she became a Land Girl.

Landscape (possibly Tares) (1917)

1917 saw Evelyn's first appearance at the Royal Academy with Tares, described by the Gentlewoman as a 'fine landscape' showing a mass of thistles on a hillside in the evening light, 'a picture full of truth and solemn beauty.' Her address for the catalogue was 71 Campden Street, Kensington, but by her next appearance in 1921, she had moved to Meadow Cottage in Petworth, Sussex, where she is listed as 'joint head' of the household.  Her sister Alice is staying with her, and Mabel is still living with their father, so I wonder if Eliza, who is visiting elsewhere and working as a temporary Government Clerk, is actually the person who Evelyn was living with. Anyway, in 1921's RA she showed Echo and Narcissus. She also took Tares to the South Wales Art Society, where it was warmly received: 'There lurks a true spirit of poetry in Miss Ince's conception of her subject...Altogether a very charming composition.'

Echo and Narcissus (1921)

1923 saw Landscape appear at the RA and the Westminster Gazette listed Evelyn's painting in their 'good work by less famous artists' list. The West Sussex Gazette called it 'suggestive yet flatly treated.' She took Amberley Ruins to the Royal Society of Painters in Watercolour in November of the same year and Spring to the Royal Society of British Artists. She got another mention in the 1924 Royal Society of British Artists exhibition, although it isn't mentioned for what picture, but for the 1925 exhibition she showed Evening in the Cotswolds which gave the reviewer 'quiet pleasure.' Interestingly, in 1926 at the Royal Society, she showed Stow in the Wold so I wonder if she had moved temporarily to the Cotswolds (and who wouldn't, Waitrose-adjacent), but by the 1927 Royal Academy she was living at 6 Willow Road, Hampstead, which is absolutely gorgeous and close to the Heath. She exhibited two flower paintings, one in oil, one in watercolour, which, looking at what illustrations were available to me online, seems to be what she is better known for now.

1928 saw Evelyn show one of her flower pieces in an exhibition aboard the Cunard Ship 'Berengaria,' which also appeared in the newspapers, as well as at various other exhibitions but not the RA. She ended the decade at an exhibition at the Walker Gallery, where a reviewer said her work made it clear that loveliness had not ended.

Bank Holiday, Hampstead (1930)

The 1930s were arguably Evelyn's best, or at least most successful, decade. At the Royal Society of British Artists in 1930 she showed a view of a Brittany village, and at the Society of Women Artists she showed a flower piece which was prized for its appropriate femininity. At the RA, she showed two more flower pieces, one in tempera and a view of Bank Holiday, Hampstead. At the Royal Society of Painters in Watercolour, she showed Mother and Child which I would love to see as I think her figurative work is beautiful.

Hitchin Church (1930)

1931 brought another Gloucestershire view, this time Painswick, displayed at the autumn exhibition of the Royal Society of British Artists. In 1932, it was a view of Hampstead at Whitsun (which I wonder was just the Bank Holiday picture from 1930 again) and yet more flowers. By 1933, she had moved to White Lodge, Meadow Way in Letchworth (very nice too, although most of the houses are white on that road, so I wondered if it was the first one along which seemed to be on its own) and at the RA she had three pictures - Harvest Field, Hitchen Church and a tempera flower piece.

Flower Piece (1934)

Now I'm going to get a bit cross. In 1934, Evelyn won the Chantry Prize, which means her picture, a tempera flower piece, was purchased for the nation and resides in the Tate. The above is the only image I can find online of it. This is arguably the most important work she did, or at least was deemed so, but the nation can't actually get digital access to it. Of the four works of art purchased by the Chantry Bequest, the other three are all available in colour on the Tate's website.  I wonder what the difference between those three male artists and Evelyn could possibly be? Hmmm...

Flowers in a Black Vase (1940)

Her tempera flowers continued to win hearts at the Royal Academy - the West Midlands Gazette declared them better than the oil paintings of the same year. In 1935, she also produced the dust jacket illustration for her sister Mabel's book The Preacher and Queen Mary bought one of her tempera flower studies. A piece in the Daily Mirror exclaimed 'Women beating men in the Academy, too!' as so many of the female artists, including Evelyn, had sold pieces of work from that year's exhibition. Her last few years were filled with tempera flowers, including a Stott Bequest winning piece, Flowers in a Black Vase in 1940. Her last piece, in 1941, was a tempera piece Dahlias which was exhibited at the Royal Academy the day before she died. Her sister Mabel died the week after on the 14th May. She left just over £2000 to Eliza, who died in 1945. Alice, as the last remaining sister, presented the painting of Hampstead at Bank Holiday to Hampstead Library before she also died in 1947.

First Garden City Gas Works (Letchworth) (no date)

So, why do we not remember Evelyn Grace Ince?  Well, for starters, flower painting is not valued at all. I was flippant about her Chantry not being photographed because she is a woman, but I bet if it had been something exciting and figurative, it would have stood a better chance.  Flower painting is predominantly a female field (no pun intended) and therefore is on a sticky-wicket to start with. Also, I don't think, as a society, we value flowers in the same way as our forebears did.  I bet my daughter doesn't even know who Costance Spry is and I've not passed down to her the basics of flower arranging (for shame!).  Maybe we need to embrace this lost art, and the love of the flower paintings would follow.  It's not like in Victorian times when each flower would have a meaning, it is just for the glorious aesthetic pleasure of the flowers, the shapes and colours. 

I'll fetch my oasis block...