Twenty Years of My Life, 1867 to 1887
London, John Lane The Bodley Head Limited, 1925.
Octavo, [viii], 344 (last blank), [6] (publisher's advertisements) pages with several illustrations plus 28 plates.
Cloth a little flecked, bumped and marked; leading and bottom edges uncut, with some marginal chips and short tears (some expertly sealed) where unopened edges have been carelessly separated; light to moderate foxing throughout; a very good copy.
The autobiography of the prominent Victorian-era artist, author and teacher Louise Jane Jopling (née Goode, later Rowe) (1843-1933), largely forgotten now - and this book is rare by any account. The blurb for a recent book by Dr Patricia De Montfort ('Louise Jopling. A Biographical and Cultural Study of the Modern Woman Artist in Victorian Britain', 2016 - 'the first in-depth study of this nineteenth-century painter who was among the first women admitted to the Royal Society of British Artists') makes short work of highlighting Jopling's importance. Besides being 'a compelling celebrity figure and social campaigner in Victorian England', in the 'aristocratic-bohemian social milieu that she inhabited ... [she was] Painted by Whistler and Millais'. 'Jopling herself portrayed Victorian-era celebrities like the actress Lillie Langtry and her patrons included members of the de Rothschild banking family. Her work also included figure compositions, interiors, landscape and genre scenes ... [She] combined professional artistic practice with social activism [progressive views on education and women's suffrage], against the backdrop of an often troubled private life'.
Item #108377
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