Studio RT Ltd

Description

We are offering for sale this excellent oil on board by the artist BARBARA LEIGH SMITH BODICHON, who has signed the painting B. Smith verso and dated it an inscribed it 'Head of Loch Lomond Scotland B. Smith Thirsk July 1879. The painting shows the head of the loch, with a small fishing boat, with its sail partially lowered, beached on the shore, with a fisherman hauling in his nets.

BARBARA LEIGH SMITH BODICHON, was born Barbara Leigh Smith in Watlington, Sussex on 8th April 1827, the illegitimate daughter of the MP for Norwich Benjamin Leigh Smith (1782-1860). He lived openly with her mother from the time she was two, and he had four more children with her. This caused a great scandal at the time. Her mother died from TB when she was only 7.

She studied art at Bedford Ladies College in London and under William Henry Hunt and was taken to visit J. M. W. Turner at his studio. She exhibited a total of 44 paintings at London exhibitions between 1863 and 1881, including 4 at the Royal Academy. She knew many members of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood and was a friend of Dante Gabriel Rossetti, Elizabeth Siddal and George Elliot. Her watercolours were admired by Corot and Daubigny.

She travelled widely and in 1857 married a French physician and politician Eugene Bodichon in Algeria, where she spent her winters, while returning to England for the summers. She was a great campaigner for women's rights and was partially responsible to the eventual passing of the Women's Property Act. She published several pamphlets on the subject of women's rights and founded the English Eomen's Journal. She was also involved in the extending of university education to women and is known as the foundress of Girton College. There is a detailed biography available on google at hastingspress.

Her husband died in Algeria in 1885 and she died in Sussex on 11th June 1891.

She is listed in The Dictionary of British Artists, The Dictionary of Victorian Painters by Christopher Wood and her London exhibitions are listed in Graves Dictionary. There is a wealth of information available of google about her and her activities.

The painting is framed in a 2 3/8" swept gilt frame and slip of more recent manufacture. It is ready to hang.

Medium Oils on Winsor and Newton Millboard