Studio RT Ltd

Description

We are pleased to offer for sale this Pair of very attractive oval Pastel Portraits of a brother and sister, by the pastellist Laura Hope, who has signed both portraits L. Hope and dated them 1901.

The young boy has fiar hair, blue eyes and a sweet expression. He is wearing a white shirt with a large collar with frilled edge which continues down the front of the shirt. His sister, also has blue eyes and fair hair, which is tied on each side with narrow blue ribbon bows and is wearing a white dress with a blue sash. She has a chain around her neck with different coloured stones hanging from it...She is holding a spray of white flowers.

Laura Hope, was born Laura Elizabeth Rachel Troubridge (1858 – 15 March 1929). She was a British diarist, letter-writer, artist and illustrator. A professional artist from an aristocratic background, she was known for her portraits of Queen Victoria and her family, and paintings of children and fairy subjects, generally in watercolour and pastel. Her book illustrations were admired by Oscar Wilde and Charles Dodgson. In 1966, her journals, giving an insight into Victorian life and in 2000 correspondence with her fiancé during the period of their engagement, were published.

In 1867, her parents, Louise and Sir Thomas Troubridge, died within a few weeks of each other and as an orphan she and her siblings went to live at North Runcton Hall in Norfolk with their grandfather, Daniel Gurney. Her grandfather's sisters, one of them Elizabeth Fry, the prsion reformer, had kept journals and it was these that inspired Troubridge to keep her own journals from 1873. Troubridge was an aspiring young artist and 1879 she wrote in her journal "To the National Gallery…Met Tardy and went together to tea at Oscar Wilde's – great fun, lots of vague 'intense' men, such differs, who amused us awfully.] She lived with her grandfather until 1880. In 1966, her journals were published as: Life Amongst the Troubridges: Journals of a Young Victorian, 1873-84.

She and Adrian Charles Frances Hope were engaged in 1884. But the young couple were not able to marry because of Hope's difficulties in finding a job that would support them both. They kept up almost daily correspondence. In their letters they wrote to each other about both public and private occasions in London and Norfolk and beyond. For example, after a dinner at Mary Molesworth's her fiancé writes to her "Mrs. Molesworth urged me to throw everything to the winds and marry you at once." Their correspondence was published posthumously as the book: Letters of Engagement, 1884-1888: The Love Letters of Adrian Hope and Laura Troubridge.

They were finally able to marry in 1888. From this time she was frequently referred to as Mrs. Adrian Hope. For the first years they were living in Bradgate House, Ratby. After St.Philip and St. James' Church was restored, they donated a 'handsome brass eagle lectern' and inserted three stained glass windows in the chancel 'at the cost of Mr. Adrian Hope.' Hope secured a position as Secretary of Great Ormond Street Hospital and in 1892[ they purchased More House, 34 Tite Street, Chelsea, London which the Hope-Nicholson family continued to live in for a century. Tite Street was a hub of artistic and literary activity at the time. Residents included Oscar Wilde, James McNeill Whistler, Dante Gabriel Rossetti and Edward Coley Burne-Jones.[ Troubridge and her husband eventually became the guardians of Oscar Wilde's two children with Constance Lloyd after his imprisonment for "gross indecency" in 1895.

Troubridge's husband died in 1904 after an operation for appendicitis.[ They had two daughters. The following year their younger daughter, Esme, at the age of 7 died of diphtheria. Troubridge and her older daughter, Jacqueline, were left in 'much reduced circumstances' so Troubridge let More House and relocated to Beaulieu, Hampshire where her brother and his family lived. In 1915, they moved back to More House where Troubridge lived for the remainder of her life.

She was a watercolour and pastel artist who exhibited at the principal London galleries. She was known for her portraits of Queen Victoria and her family, and, paintings of children and fairy subjects. On the reverse of two pastels by Troubridge, Margaret and Wanderers, was the same newspaper cutting.

The newspaper cutting on the verso states that she studied painting in London, being advised by John Millais, and working in Mr. Cope's studio, and exhibited at the New Gallery, the Dudley Gallery, and other exhibitions. It also states that she was a member of the Pastel Society and painted between 700 and 800 portraits, including two of the Queen of Spain as a child, the daughters of the Duke and Duchess of Connaught at Osborne House in 1891 for presentation to Queen Victoria, and two portraits of Queen Mary in 1903.

She was self-taught[ and a command to paint twenty-two of Queen Victoria's grandchildren instantly made her artistic reputation. During the years 1893 - 1901 she exhibited at the Dudley Gallery and the New Gallery, and, was a member of the Society of Women Artists and the Royal Society Portrait Painters. At an exhibition and sale, in aid of three charities for women, held in 1896 at Reuben David Sassoon's house Troubridge contributed a pastel 'of delicate workmanship' called L'Enfant Prodigue. She was one of the founder Members of the Pastel Society.

There is an oil portrait in the National Collection by L. Hope, which is probably by Laura Hope and can be viewed at ArtUK.org

Her works are attributed to, or by, her various names or a combination of those names: Laura Troubridge Laura Trowbridge, Laura Elizabeth Rachel Troubridge Laura Hope Laura Elizabeth Rachel Hope Laura Troubridge Hope Mrs. Adrian C. Hope and, Mrs. Adrian Hope.

The pair of portraits are framed in near matching wood and plaster 2 3/4 inch ornate oval gilt frames and, according to the label on the reverse,they were rebacked with paper and sold in Bath in November 1964. Supplied with the pastels is an article about the artist and her pastels which was published in 1903.

Image size24 3/8 x 17 3/4 inches - 62cm x 45cm:

Frame size: 30 x 23 1/4 inches - 76.2cm x 59.2cm -

Medium: Pastels

Condition: Very good. The pastels are in very giood condition, as are the oval frames.