Nellie Joshua:
Heatherley's Art School, circa 1900
Framed (ref: 4779)

Oil on canvas

Tags: Nellie Joshua oil allegory artists at work 1.PORTRAIT OF AN ARTIST Fifty Works by Fifty British Women Artists 1900 - 1950 WOMEN women portraits Mercer

Provenance: Anissa Helou collection; Private collection

Exhibitited: The Edwardian Era, Barbican Art Gallery, (November 87-February 88), no 56.

Literature: The Edwardian Era, Barbican Art Gallery, (November 87-February 88), p 40.

Llewellyn, Sacha, and Paul Liss. Portrait of an Artist. Liss Llewellyn, 2021, p.12.

Heatherley's, founded in 1845, is one of the oldest independent art schools in London and was the first to admit women to the life room on equal terms with men. In Joshua’s highly observed work she depicts the school’s large collection of historical dress, ceramics and armour which formed a costume studio for the use of students. One of the two students depicted – both wearing matching painting smocks in hues of blue – is likely to be a self-portrait.

Heatherley’s, as it is affectionately known, is one of the oldest independent art schools in London and the first to admit women to the life room on equal terms with men. Women artists who attended the school include Emily Mary Osborn, Kate Greenway and Laura Herford – the first woman to be admitted to the Royal Academy Schools in 1860. In Nellie Joshua’s highly observed work she depicts the school’s large collection of historical dress, ceramics and armour which formed a costume studio for the use of students. The painting seems to relate to a contemporary photograph in Heatherley’s archive which shows the same view of the costume studio and two seated women students (see biographical entry for Joshua). The students who are wearing matching painting smocks in hues of blue – perhaps one is the artist herself – appear to be looking at a sketchbook.

Samuel Butler’s work Mr Heatherley’s Holiday: An Incident in Studio Life (1874, Tate) depicts another view of the school’s costume studio. In a letter to OTJ Alpers (17 February 1902), Butler wrote: “When I was studying painting in my kind old friend Mr. Heatherley’s studio, I remember hearing a student ask how long a man might hope to go on improving. Mr Heatherley said: ‘As long as he is not satisfied with his own work’.”

Commentary by Alice Strickland, curator for the National Trust in London and the South East. Her research interests include British women artists, with a particular focus on their education and exhibiting opportunities. She is an active member of the Tate’s British Women Artists 1750–1950 Network.