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...

Mrs Byam Shaw is also an artist

Here we are again, and I have the feeling that this year is going to be filled with artistic wives who don't normally get a look in, but I'm fine with that, I'm always up for a challenge.  A definite case in point is today's subject.  Honestly, I absolutely adore the art of John Byam Liston Shaw (whose names I always get in the wrong order, like John Stanhope Spencer Stanhope) (possibly another Spencer on the end), more commonly known as Byam Shaw, who is responsible for stuff like this...

The Boer War (1901) Byam Shaw

...not to mention any number of gorgeous book illustrations and all sorts of cracking works of art. What I didn't know, much to my embarrassment was that Mrs Byam Shaw was also an artist, sadly now lost to the mists of time.  Say hello to Evelyn Pyke-Nott...

Bydown House, Swimbridge, Devon

She was actually born Caroline Evelyn Eunice Pyke-Nott and just to make things super confusing, before 1863, her family name was Nott-Pyke, which is my worst nightmare as I kept getting it wrong while searching. Evelyn came from a comfortable amount of money, as her father inherited his uncle's name and what-have-you in 1863, switching the bits of his surname round to fit his inheritance.  That all seems a bit much to me but then I'm not posh, so what do I know? Her parents were John and Caroline (hence the fact that little Caroline was henceforth known as Evelyn), who married in 1867 and went on to have six children, four boys and two daughters (I'll come back to the second daughter in a minute because she is really famous and I never knew she was Byam Shaw's sister in law! I'll get to that in a minute...) Not that these things are really important to the story, but I was pleased to see that all but one of the Pyke-Nott children lived to a ripe old age, with only the baby Adrian not even making a year old, which is tragic.  The rest of them made very decent innings, which makes a change for something I've researched. To give some context to the family situation, their country house was the extremely modest Bydown House (above) with a small residence in London in Belsize Square (which is now flats and will set you back around a million if you fancy one).  So, she obviously had a very humble upbringing indeed...

Her brothers, James and Edward, became horse dealers and eldest brother John became a land agent, but her sister Isabel Codrington Pyke Nott shared her sister's love of art, enrolling in the Royal Academy in 1889, aged 15.  I have very great hopes that Isabel Codrington (she dropped her surname, hence being surprised when I saw her in the family tree) will have a renaissance very soon as she is a brilliant artist, but I tend to associate her with Mid-Twentieth Century stuff, so I was surprised she was a Victorian...

Morning (1934) Isabel Codrington

Evelyn went to art school at St John's Wood, before graduating to the Royal Academy with her sister. Interestingly, in the 1891 census, brother James also claims to be working as an artist and sculptor, while his sisters are off at the RA.  James did keep some artistic interest as he is responsible for at least one story in The Yellow Book in 1896, but I'm guessing horse dealing pays better. I digress.   It was whilst at the St John's Art School, that Evelyn Pyke Nott met John Byam Liston Shaw...

Byam Shaw (1894) Frederick Hollyer

Evelyn was in the class with a number of well-known artists who were the couple's friends, including Gerald Fenwick Metcalfe (who would go on and paint Evelyn in 1900 and exhibit it at the RA) and Rex Vicat Cole.  In 1891, Evelyn won a silver medal for her drawing, winning two more in 1894 for painting a head and a draped figure.  She exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1895 with At the Door, in 1896 with Portrait of a Lady and 1897 with a portrait of her sister Isabel. 

Byam Shaw and Evelyn got engaged in 1894 but didn't marry for five years.  For their marriage, Alexander Fisher designed this clasp...

It shows Love singing in the tree above the happy couple.  Interestingly, I've read that Evelyn and Byam Shaw did not marry earlier because 'they were not rich enough' - Well, seeing that he was selling paintings earlier than that and had a piece written about how hot he was in The Studio in 1897, I have questions about the 'poverty' of Mr Byam Shaw.  Also, Evelyn's family owned Devon. In 1881, The Shaws were lived in Kensington in London (only £3million to live there now, on Holland Road), having returned from India the previous decade.  Byam Shaw's father had been a solicitor, and he died in 1887 but didn't leave the family badly off, leaving £5000 (around half a million in today's money) to his widow.  Unless Daddy had a massive gambling habit (I doubt it) I wonder if Byam Shaw took responsibility for the household, being the only son, so his marriage was delayed.  His sister Margaret remained at home before marrying at 43 in 1913, a month before her mother died. 

The Queen of Hearts (1896) Byam Shaw

In the meantime, Byam Shaw painted this picture of his future wife - that's Evelyn in the middle as the queen.  It is an unbelievably exquisite piece, which apparently also contains a portrait of another art school friend of the couple, Eleanor Fortescue Brickdale...

I think EFB is the one in purple, and for context, here is EFB hanging out in the Byam Shaw garden...

It is one of my favourite photos of artists as they just look like such jolly chums.  Byam Shaw also painted Evelyn in this portrait which I am desperate to see a colour version of...

I bet that is absolutely glorious in real life. Above her head is a frieze  including Bydown House and her past times of riding and croquet, together with her painting.  She is also sporting a whopper of a ring, just in case you missed they were engaged. It is also stated that she appears in this painting...

The Blessed Damozel (1895) Byam Shaw

This is an illustration of the Rossetti poem about a dead beloved up in heaven watching her lovely chap down below, although this Blessed Damozel just seems to be hanging out with her gal-pals and enjoying a manless afterlife.  I think the actual Blessed Damozel looks a bit old to be Evelyn, but the lass behind in red looks promising. I think it might be interesting to look at his paintings from this period especially to see if you can spot Evelyn and Eleanor in more of his pictures, and I wonder if he also used his male friends too.  Why haven't we had a Byam Shaw retrospective?  I digress. Just as an aside, one of my favourite things I've learned this week is that, as Byam Shaw was also a theatrical costume designer, he designed a page-boy outfit for Isabel Codrington's wedding. The description was of a tabard of white velvet with silver embroidery.  Now, little James Pyke Nott, the page boy was under 10 years old. I wonder how long that all stayed white...?

The Byam Shaws moved to Kensington after their marriage (not that I doubt their poverty) and in the 1901 census, they live at Addison Road, with their baby son, George.  George was quickly followed by Barbara (1901), John James (1903), Glencairn (better known as Glen, 1904) and David (1906).  While Byam Shaw brought in increasingly handsome amounts of money, their army of servants ensured that Evelyn maintained her own artistic career and she also provided help to Byam Shaw in his work. According to his biographers, he was both proud of her work and respected her as an artist, however in the family portrait he chose a more traditional representation...

My Wife, My Bairns and My Wee Dog John (1903) Byam Shaw

Much is made of the fact that he doesn't paint Evelyn as an artist, but then, not wishing to overly defend what more than likely was a patriarchal decision, when my husband takes pictures of me, I'm not always carrying a large stack of research books or holding a pen.  It's also mentioned that he doesn't list the servant's name either (their nurse in 1901 is called Caroline Something-Illegible, sadly she isn't there in 1911 when a younger woman who would have been too young in 1901 to be their nurse has taken over) but I don't think it's necessary to get outraged by this because at least the servant is shown.  They obviously had more servants, but the point of the picture is his family and his children.  In the 1911 census they list their five children but (as you have to on the 1911 census) one deceased child is recorded.  I wonder, therefore, if this is a celebration of the life of his children, the preciousness of  George, Barbara and baby John. There isn't much in the way of gaps between the births of the children so I wonder if one of the children was a twin, one of whom died?  Also, is it just me who thinks that it's weird that the baby and the dog have the same name? Rich people are odd.

At some point, Evelyn began to specialise in miniatures.  Her talent was recognised in 1910 when Byam Shaw and friend Rex Vicat Cole set up an art school (it was absorbed into St Martin's College in 2003) and Evelyn was employed to teach miniature painting.  Her class was 3 afternoons a week to a small class so that she could give individual attention.  By 1911, Evelyn was 40 and Byam Shaw 38, both listed in the census as artists and living with their children, a cook, a parlour maid and a nurse in Kensington. Byam Shaw was a member of the Artist's Rifles, but became a Special Constable, one of the first. Heading into the First World War, it is a relief to report that no-one was old enough, or seemingly eligible to head off to war so that makes a change (although, no spoilers, but pace yourself).  Two of the few images we have of Evelyn's work actually come from miniatures she painted of young officers...

Temporary Lt Augustus James Jessopp (1916) Evelyn Byam Shaw

Augustus Jessopp was born in 1893 in Bedford.  His father was a solicitor and his brother, Walter, born in 1896, also followed him when they signed up for military action in 1914. Walter had qualified to be a civil engineer, but signed up in 1916 to the Machine Gun Corp.  Augustus had passed his exams to become a solicitor like his father and joined the Royal Flying Corp.  I think we all know what's coming...

Temporary Lt Walter Leverton Jessopp (1916) Evelyn Byam Shaw

The household the Jessop family kept in 1911 reflects the Byam Shaws, with their large house on Park Avenue in Bedford.  How proud parents Walter and Emily Jessopp must have been of their boys, so proud as to commission two perfect miniatures of them in uniform - I wonder if they were done as they brothers signed up, like some families had the photograph taken? Augustus died in the May of 1917, Walter in the July. That's exceptionally bleak, so let's see one that's not horrifically tragic...

Melisande (c.1915) Evelyn Byam Shaw

That's better. It seems that, although not much of it (if anything) appears to be in public ownership, Evelyn continued to produce her exquisite miniatures.  In 1916, she showed her miniature of actress Gladys Cooper at the Royal Academy.  As her husband was so involved in costume design and the couple were friends with people such as the Beerbohm Trees, I wonder if that is partly why their son Glen became an actor and director? Anyway, I'm getting ahead of myself.  All Byam Shaws got through the Great War intact, however in his duties as a special constable, he caught a chill.  After a fortnight of fighting it off, he took to his bed and died.  He was 46.  He was diagnosed with encephalitis lethargica, or sleeping sickness, an epidemic of which swept through the country from 1917 to 1928, coincidentally at the same time as the 'Spanish flu' and in some biography, it is assumed that he died as part of the 1919 pandemic.  There are some very interesting papers on the possible causal links between the two if you fancy terrifying yourself stupid like I did. Honestly, I'm going out in a haz-mat suit from now on.

So, Evelyn found herself a widow in her late 40s with young adult children, however she continued to paint. I have to laugh as in 1902, the Echo newspaper wrote, very patronisingly of her 'Mrs Byam Shaw is also an artist, but she has not exhibited at the Academy since she ceased to be Miss Pyke Nott.' It seems to be that she never stopped exhibiting, with entries in the exhibition catalogue, such as 1921's Barbara and Elizabeth Ann (Barbara was the name of her daughter, so possibly her portrait?).  In 1930 she exhibited portraits of her grandchildren, Nicholas and Ann and in 1937, she showed a miniature of Alan, actor Emlyn William's son.

John James Byam Shaw (1929) Photo by Lafayette

John James Byam Shaw became an art historian and a museum curator, working for Colnaghi's for many years.  Known as Jim, he was instrumental in building the drawing collections of the British Museum and the Ashmolean.  What a smashing chap.

Barbara married Tony Follett Pugsley, who has his own Wikipedia page and they lived to a ripe old age, which is a relief.

Glen Byam Shaw as Laertes (1934-5) Glyn Philpot

Glen became one of the most respected and innovative theatre directors in the country, friends with John Guilgud (to give you some sort of context of company). Initially a lover of Siegfried Sassoon, he married an actress, Angela Baddeley (best remembered now as Mrs Bridges in Upstairs, Downstairs) in 1929 and they lived happily ever after.  He died in the 1980s, which is impressive indeed.

George, the eldest, joined the Royal Scots regiment in 1922, after a life in the army. He became a major but died in Belgium in May 1940 during a week of the heaviest casualties of officers in the war to that date.  He is buried at Bruyelle War Cemetery.

David, the youngest, was awarded an OBE for his service to the Royal Navy in 1940. Just before Christmas in 1941, while on HMS Stanley, an ex-American destroyer, protecting a convoy, his ship was struck by missiles, sinking rapidly.  Only 25 of the ship's company survived and David was not one of them.

So, what of Evelyn?  In the 1939 census, she is living at Hollybush Corner in Richmond (which might be Hollybush House now? It looks very lovely indeed) and she is listed as an artist.  Hurrah! I am cheered because so many independently wealthy women artists are often listed as things like 'domestic work' or 'Living on Own Means' which disguises whether or not they are still working.  Eventually, she retired to the Thames Bank Nursing Home in Goring on Thames and died in 1960 at the very respectable age of 89, over twice the amount of years her husband managed. 

What I would very much like is to know firstly where that gorgeous portrait of Evelyn resides and who has the pleasure of owning her miniatures.  Surely a Byam Shaw/Pyke Nott/Codrington exhibition could be organised, celebrating the talent and diversity of such a fascinating family? Yet again we are left calling for a bit of parity in our reporting of wives who are 'also an artist'. It's about time.