Three watercolors, views of Lee, North Devon
1875. Each a watercolor and graphite on watercolor paper, each adhered to a sketchbook page matrix, sheet measures 10 1/4 x 14 1/4 inches (260 x 362 mm). The top painting is initialed in pencil in the lower right corner, and titled in pencil below the painting in the lower right on the matrix; the center painting is initialed in pencil in the lower left recto, and dated in pencil on the matrix below the painting. Each in very good condition, the matrix is slightly toned.
Ellen Brooker Beale attended Queen's College, London and took lessons at a private art school run by the artist Matthew Leigh. Along with her sister, Sophia Beale, she spent considerable periods in the National Gallery and the British Museum copying Old Masters and antiquities. From 1860 to 1867 the two sisters had a studio in Covent Garden on Long Acre. In 1869, and again in 1872, they traveled to Paris where they studied at Charles Joshua Chaplin's studio. When they returned to London, the sisters used the money they had earned to open an art school on Albany Street near Regent's Park. The techniques they had learned in Paris were in considerable demand at the time. In 1889 they were among the 2,000 signatories to a declaration supporting women's suffrage and also advocated for the Royal Academy and the universities to allow greater access to women.
Item number: 2940
Price: $750.00
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