John Roddam Spencer Stanhope
Encyclopedia
John Roddam Spencer-Stanhope (20 January 1829 — 2 August 1908) is an English artist associated with Edward Burne-Jones
and George Frederic Watts
and often regarded as a second-wave pre-Raphaelite
. His work is also studied within the context of Aestheticism
and British Symbolism
. As a painter, Stanhope worked in oil
, watercolor
, fresco
, and mixed media
. His subject matter was mythological
, allegorical
, biblical
, and contemporary. Stanhope was born in Yorkshire
, England, and died in Florence
, Italy. He was the uncle and teacher of the painter Evelyn de Morgan
.
of Horsforth
and Cannon Hall
, MP
, a classical antiquarian who in his youth explored Greece. The artist’s mother was Elizabeth Wilhemina Coke, third and youngest daughter of Thomas William Coke
of Norfolk
, first Earl of Leicester
; she and her sisters had studied art with Thomas Gainsborough
. Stanhope had one older brother, Walter, who inherited Cannon Hall
, and four sisters, Anna Maria Wilhelmina, Eliza Anne, Anne Alicia, and Louisa Elizabeth. Anna married Percival Pickering and became the mother of Evelyn
.
Not inheriting the family estates left Stanhope free to make a commitment to art. While a student at Oxford, he sought out Watts as a teacher and was Watts’ assistant for some of his architectural paintings. Spencer-Stanhope traveled with Watts to Italy in 1853 and to Asia Minor
in 1856–57. Upon his return, he was invited by Dante Gabriel Rossetti
to participate in the Oxford mural
s project, painting Sir Gawaine and the Damsels.
On 10 January 1859 he married Elizabeth King, the daughter of John James King, granddaughter of the third Earl of Egremont
, and the widow of George Frederick Dawson. They settled in Hillhouse, Cawthorne
, and had one daughter, Mary, in 1860. That same year, Spencer-Stanhope’s house Sandroyd (now called Benfleet Hall), near Cobham
in Surrey
, was commissioned from the architect Philip Webb
. Finished by 1861, Sandroyd was only Webb’s second house, the first having been built for William Morris
. The house was designed to accommodate Stanhope’s work as a painter, with two second-floor studio
s connected by double doors, a waiting room, and a dressing room for models
. The fireplace featured figurative tiles designed by Burne-Jones based on Chaucer’s
dream-vision
poem The Legend of Good Women
. For a person of Stanhope’s social standing, the house was considered “a modest artist’s dwelling.” Burne-Jones was a frequent visitor to Sandroyd in the 1860s, and the landscape furnished the background for his painting The Merciful Knight (1864), the design of which Stanhope’s I Have Trod the Winepress Alone is said to resemble.
The move was intended to offer an improved environment for Stanhope’s chronic asthma
. When his condition was not alleviated, he turned to wintering in Florence. In the summers, he at first stayed at Burne-Jones’s house in London and later at the Elms, the western half of Little Campden House on Campden Hill
, the eastern half of which was occupied by Augustus Egg
.
In 1867, at the age of seven, Mary died of scarlet fever
and was buried in at the English Cemetery in Florence
. Her father designed her headstone.
Though his family accepted his occupation as a painter and took a great interest in art, Evelyn’s parents disparaged the achievements of “poor Roddy” and regarded the painters with whom he associated as “unconventional.” Considered among the avant-garde
of the 1870s, Stanhope became a regular exhibitor at the Grosvenor Gallery
, the alternative to the Royal Academy
.
Stanhope moved permanently to Florence in 1880. There he painted the reredos
of the English Church, and other work in the Chapel of Marlborough College. In 1873, he bought the Villa Nuti in Florence, where he was visited frequently by de Morgan and where he lived until his death.
De Morgan’s sister, A.M.W. Stirling
, wrote a collection of biographical essays called A Painter of Dreams, including reminiscences of her uncle, “the Idealist, the seer of exquisite visions.” During the 19th and early 20th century, the extended Spencer-Stanhope family
included several artists, whose ties were the theme of a 2007 exhibition, Painters of Dreams, part of the 50th anniversary celebration of the opening of Cannon Hall to the public as a museum. Featured were paintings by Stanhope and de Morgan, along with ceramics by her husband, William de Morgan
; bronzes by Gertrude Spencer-Stanhope
; and the ballroom at Cannon Hall
and “Fairyland” in the pleasure grounds, which were designed by Sir Walter and his daughter Cecily.
Paintings and other works by John Roddam Spencer Stanhope include:
Other works (dates unavailable):
Edward Burne-Jones
Sir Edward Coley Burne-Jones, 1st Baronet was a British artist and designer closely associated with the later phase of the Pre-Raphaelite movement, who worked closely with William Morris on a wide range of decorative arts as a founding partner in Morris, Marshall, Faulkner, and Company...
and George Frederic Watts
George Frederic Watts
George Frederic Watts, OM was a popular English Victorian painter and sculptor associated with the Symbolist movement. Watts became famous in his lifetime for his allegorical works, such as Hope and Love and Life...
and often regarded as a second-wave pre-Raphaelite
Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood
The Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood was a group of English painters, poets, and critics, founded in 1848 by William Holman Hunt, John Everett Millais and Dante Gabriel Rossetti...
. His work is also studied within the context of Aestheticism
Aestheticism
Aestheticism was a 19th century European art movement that emphasized aesthetic values more than socio-political themes for literature, fine art, the decorative arts, and interior design...
and British Symbolism
Symbolism (arts)
Symbolism was a late nineteenth-century art movement of French, Russian and Belgian origin in poetry and other arts. In literature, the style had its beginnings with the publication Les Fleurs du mal by Charles Baudelaire...
. As a painter, Stanhope worked in oil
Oil paint
Oil paint is a type of slow-drying paint that consists of particles of pigment suspended in a drying oil, commonly linseed oil. The viscosity of the paint may be modified by the addition of a solvent such as turpentine or white spirit, and varnish may be added to increase the glossiness of the...
, watercolor
Watercolor painting
Watercolor or watercolour , also aquarelle from French, is a painting method. A watercolor is the medium or the resulting artwork in which the paints are made of pigments suspended in a water-soluble vehicle...
, fresco
Fresco
Fresco is any of several related mural painting types, executed on plaster on walls or ceilings. The word fresco comes from the Greek word affresca which derives from the Latin word for "fresh". Frescoes first developed in the ancient world and continued to be popular through the Renaissance...
, and mixed media
Mixed media
Mixed media, in visual art, refers to an artwork in the making of which more than one medium has been employed.There is an important distinction between "mixed-media" artworks and "multimedia art". Mixed media tends to refer to a work of visual art that combines various traditionally distinct...
. His subject matter was mythological
Greek mythology in western art and literature
With the rediscovery of classical antiquity in Renaissance, the poetry of Ovid became a major influence on the imagination of poets and artists and remained a fundamental influence on the diffusion and perception of Greek mythology through subsequent centuries...
, allegorical
Allegory
Allegory is a demonstrative form of representation explaining meaning other than the words that are spoken. Allegory communicates its message by means of symbolic figures, actions or symbolic representation...
, biblical
Bible
The Bible refers to any one of the collections of the primary religious texts of Judaism and Christianity. There is no common version of the Bible, as the individual books , their contents and their order vary among denominations...
, and contemporary. Stanhope was born in Yorkshire
Yorkshire
Yorkshire is a historic county of northern England and the largest in the United Kingdom. Because of its great size in comparison to other English counties, functions have been increasingly undertaken over time by its subdivisions, which have also been subject to periodic reform...
, England, and died in Florence
Florence
Florence is the capital city of the Italian region of Tuscany and of the province of Florence. It is the most populous city in Tuscany, with approximately 370,000 inhabitants, expanding to over 1.5 million in the metropolitan area....
, Italy. He was the uncle and teacher of the painter Evelyn de Morgan
Evelyn De Morgan
Evelyn De Morgan was an English Pre-Raphaelite painter.She was born Evelyn Pickering. Her parents were of upper middle class. Her father was Percival Pickering QC, the Recorder of Pontefract...
.
Life and career
Stanhope was the son of John Spencer StanhopeSpencer-Stanhope family
Spencer-Stanhope is the family name of British landed gentry who for 200 years held Cannon Hall, a country house in South Yorkshire that since the 1950s has been a museum...
of Horsforth
Horsforth
Horsforth is a town and civil parish within the metropolitan borough of the City of Leeds, in West Yorkshire, England, lying to the north west of Leeds. It has a population of 18,928....
and Cannon Hall
Cannon Hall
Cannon Hall is a country house museum located between the villages of Cawthorne and High Hoyland north of Barnsley, South Yorkshire, England. Originally the home of the Spencer and later the Spencer-Stanhope family, it now houses collections of fine furniture, paintings, ceramics and glassware...
, MP
Member of Parliament
A Member of Parliament is a representative of the voters to a :parliament. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, the term applies specifically to members of the lower house, as upper houses often have a different title, such as senate, and thus also have different titles for its members,...
, a classical antiquarian who in his youth explored Greece. The artist’s mother was Elizabeth Wilhemina Coke, third and youngest daughter of Thomas William Coke
Thomas Coke, 1st Earl of Leicester (seventh creation)
Thomas William Coke, 1st Earl of Leicester , known as Coke of Norfolk, was a British politician and agricultural reformer. Born to Wenman Coke, Member of Parliament for Derby and his wife Elizabeth, Coke was educated at several schools, including Eton College, before undertaking a Grand Tour of...
of Norfolk
Norfolk
Norfolk is a low-lying county in the East of England. It has borders with Lincolnshire to the west, Cambridgeshire to the west and southwest and Suffolk to the south. Its northern and eastern boundaries are the North Sea coast and to the north-west the county is bordered by The Wash. The county...
, first Earl of Leicester
Earl of Leicester
The title Earl of Leicester was created in the 12th century in the Peerage of England , and is currently a title in the Peerage of the United Kingdom, created in 1837.-Early creations:...
; she and her sisters had studied art with Thomas Gainsborough
Thomas Gainsborough
Thomas Gainsborough was an English portrait and landscape painter.-Suffolk:Thomas Gainsborough was born in Sudbury, Suffolk. He was the youngest son of John Gainsborough, a weaver and maker of woolen goods. At the age of thirteen he impressed his father with his penciling skills so that he let...
. Stanhope had one older brother, Walter, who inherited Cannon Hall
Cannon Hall
Cannon Hall is a country house museum located between the villages of Cawthorne and High Hoyland north of Barnsley, South Yorkshire, England. Originally the home of the Spencer and later the Spencer-Stanhope family, it now houses collections of fine furniture, paintings, ceramics and glassware...
, and four sisters, Anna Maria Wilhelmina, Eliza Anne, Anne Alicia, and Louisa Elizabeth. Anna married Percival Pickering and became the mother of Evelyn
Evelyn De Morgan
Evelyn De Morgan was an English Pre-Raphaelite painter.She was born Evelyn Pickering. Her parents were of upper middle class. Her father was Percival Pickering QC, the Recorder of Pontefract...
.
Not inheriting the family estates left Stanhope free to make a commitment to art. While a student at Oxford, he sought out Watts as a teacher and was Watts’ assistant for some of his architectural paintings. Spencer-Stanhope traveled with Watts to Italy in 1853 and to Asia Minor
Asia Minor
Asia Minor is a geographical location at the westernmost protrusion of Asia, also called Anatolia, and corresponds to the western two thirds of the Asian part of Turkey...
in 1856–57. Upon his return, he was invited by Dante Gabriel Rossetti
Dante Gabriel Rossetti
Dante Gabriel Rossetti was an English poet, illustrator, painter and translator. He founded the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood in 1848 with William Holman Hunt and John Everett Millais, and was later to be the main inspiration for a second generation of artists and writers influenced by the movement,...
to participate in the Oxford mural
Mural
A mural is any piece of artwork painted or applied directly on a wall, ceiling or other large permanent surface. A particularly distinguishing characteristic of mural painting is that the architectural elements of the given space are harmoniously incorporated into the picture.-History:Murals of...
s project, painting Sir Gawaine and the Damsels.
On 10 January 1859 he married Elizabeth King, the daughter of John James King, granddaughter of the third Earl of Egremont
Earl of Egremont
Earls of Egremont was a title in the Peerage of Great Britain. It was created in 1749, along with the subsidiary title of Baron Cockermouth, for Algernon Seymour, 7th Duke of Somerset, with remainder to his nephews Sir Charles Wyndham, 4th Baronet, of Orchard Wyndham, and Percy Wyndham-O’Brien...
, and the widow of George Frederick Dawson. They settled in Hillhouse, Cawthorne
Cawthorne
Cawthorne is a village and civil parish in the Metropolitan Borough of Barnsley in South Yorkshire, England. The village was once the centre of a localised iron and coal mining industry, though today it is the centre of a very affluent commuter belt, west of Barnsley...
, and had one daughter, Mary, in 1860. That same year, Spencer-Stanhope’s house Sandroyd (now called Benfleet Hall), near Cobham
Cobham, Surrey
Cobham is a town in the Borough of Elmbridge in Surrey, England, about south-west of central London and north of Leatherhead. Elmbridge has been acclaimed by the Daily Mail as the best place to live in the UK, and Cobham is a prosperous part of the London commuter belt...
in Surrey
Surrey
Surrey is a county in the South East of England and is one of the Home Counties. The county borders Greater London, Kent, East Sussex, West Sussex, Hampshire and Berkshire. The historic county town is Guildford. Surrey County Council sits at Kingston upon Thames, although this has been part of...
, was commissioned from the architect Philip Webb
Philip Webb
Another Philip Webb — Philip Edward Webb was the architect son of leading architect Sir Aston Webb. Along with his brother, Maurice, he assisted his father towards the end of his career....
. Finished by 1861, Sandroyd was only Webb’s second house, the first having been built for William Morris
William Morris
William Morris 24 March 18343 October 1896 was an English textile designer, artist, writer, and socialist associated with the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood and the English Arts and Crafts Movement...
. The house was designed to accommodate Stanhope’s work as a painter, with two second-floor studio
Studio
A studio is an artist's or worker's workroom, or the catchall term for an artist and his or her employees who work within that studio. This can be for the purpose of architecture, painting, pottery , sculpture, scrapbooking, photography, graphic design, filmmaking, animation, radio or television...
s connected by double doors, a waiting room, and a dressing room for models
Model (art)
Art models are models who pose for photographers, painters, sculptors, and other artists as part of their work of art. Art models who pose in the nude for life drawing are usually called life models...
. The fireplace featured figurative tiles designed by Burne-Jones based on Chaucer’s
Geoffrey Chaucer
Geoffrey Chaucer , known as the Father of English literature, is widely considered the greatest English poet of the Middle Ages and was the first poet to have been buried in Poet's Corner of Westminster Abbey...
dream-vision
Dream vision
A dream vision is a literary device in which a dream is recounted for a specific purpose. While dreams occur frequently throughout the history of literature, the dream vision emerged as a poetic genre in its own right, and was particularly popular in the Middle Ages. This genre typically follows a...
poem The Legend of Good Women
The Legend of Good Women
The Legend of Good Women is a poem in the form of a dream vision by Geoffrey Chaucer.The poem is the third longest of Chaucer’s works, after The Canterbury Tales and Troilus and Criseyde and is possibly the first significant work in English to use the iambic pentameter or decasyllabic couplets...
. For a person of Stanhope’s social standing, the house was considered “a modest artist’s dwelling.” Burne-Jones was a frequent visitor to Sandroyd in the 1860s, and the landscape furnished the background for his painting The Merciful Knight (1864), the design of which Stanhope’s I Have Trod the Winepress Alone is said to resemble.
The move was intended to offer an improved environment for Stanhope’s chronic asthma
Asthma
Asthma is the common chronic inflammatory disease of the airways characterized by variable and recurring symptoms, reversible airflow obstruction, and bronchospasm. Symptoms include wheezing, coughing, chest tightness, and shortness of breath...
. When his condition was not alleviated, he turned to wintering in Florence. In the summers, he at first stayed at Burne-Jones’s house in London and later at the Elms, the western half of Little Campden House on Campden Hill
Campden Hill
Campden Hill is an area of high ground in west London between Notting Hill, Kensington and Holland Park.The area is characterised by large Victorian houses. It is also the site of reservoirs established in the 19th century by the Grand Junction Waterworks Company and the West Middlesex Waterworks...
, the eastern half of which was occupied by Augustus Egg
Augustus Egg
Augustus Leopold Egg 2 May 1816 in London, England – 26 March 1863) was a Victorian artist best known for his modern triptych Past and Present , which depicts the breakup of a middle-class Victorian family.-Biography:...
.
In 1867, at the age of seven, Mary died of scarlet fever
Scarlet fever
Scarlet fever is a disease caused by exotoxin released by Streptococcus pyogenes. Once a major cause of death, it is now effectively treated with antibiotics...
and was buried in at the English Cemetery in Florence
English Cemetery, Florence
The English Cemetery is in Piazzale Donatello, Florence, Italy.-History:In 1827 the Swiss Evangelical Reformed Church purchased land outside the medieval wall and gate of Porta a' Pinti from Leopold II, Grand Duke of Tuscany for an international and ecumenical cemetery, Russian and Greek Orthodox...
. Her father designed her headstone.
Though his family accepted his occupation as a painter and took a great interest in art, Evelyn’s parents disparaged the achievements of “poor Roddy” and regarded the painters with whom he associated as “unconventional.” Considered among the avant-garde
Avant-garde
Avant-garde means "advance guard" or "vanguard". The adjective form is used in English to refer to people or works that are experimental or innovative, particularly with respect to art, culture, and politics....
of the 1870s, Stanhope became a regular exhibitor at the Grosvenor Gallery
Grosvenor Gallery
The Grosvenor Gallery was an art gallery in London founded in 1877 by Sir Coutts Lindsay and his wife Blanche. Its first directors were J. Comyns Carr and Charles Hallé...
, the alternative to the Royal Academy
Royal Academy
The Royal Academy of Arts is an art institution based in Burlington House on Piccadilly, London. The Royal Academy of Arts has a unique position in being an independent, privately funded institution led by eminent artists and architects whose purpose is to promote the creation, enjoyment and...
.
Stanhope moved permanently to Florence in 1880. There he painted the reredos
Reredos
thumb|300px|right|An altar and reredos from [[St. Josaphat's Roman Catholic Church|St. Josaphat Catholic Church]] in [[Detroit]], [[Michigan]]. This would be called a [[retable]] in many other languages and countries....
of the English Church, and other work in the Chapel of Marlborough College. In 1873, he bought the Villa Nuti in Florence, where he was visited frequently by de Morgan and where he lived until his death.
De Morgan’s sister, A.M.W. Stirling
A.M.W. Stirling
A.M.W. Stirling was the author of several books dealing mostly with the lives and reminiscences of the British landed gentry of Yorkshire...
, wrote a collection of biographical essays called A Painter of Dreams, including reminiscences of her uncle, “the Idealist, the seer of exquisite visions.” During the 19th and early 20th century, the extended Spencer-Stanhope family
Spencer-Stanhope family
Spencer-Stanhope is the family name of British landed gentry who for 200 years held Cannon Hall, a country house in South Yorkshire that since the 1950s has been a museum...
included several artists, whose ties were the theme of a 2007 exhibition, Painters of Dreams, part of the 50th anniversary celebration of the opening of Cannon Hall to the public as a museum. Featured were paintings by Stanhope and de Morgan, along with ceramics by her husband, William de Morgan
William De Morgan
William Frend De Morgan was an English potter and tile designer. A lifelong friend of William Morris, he designed tiles, stained glass and furniture for Morris & Co. from 1863 to 1872. His tiles are often based on medieval designs or Persian patterns, and he experimented with innovative glazes and...
; bronzes by Gertrude Spencer-Stanhope
Gertrude Spencer-Stanhope
Gertrude Spencer-Stanhope was an English sculptor and painter. She was the niece of John Roddam Spencer-Stanhope and the cousin of Evelyn Pickering de Morgan, both of whom were noted pre-Raphaelite painters.-Life and career:...
; and the ballroom at Cannon Hall
Cannon Hall
Cannon Hall is a country house museum located between the villages of Cawthorne and High Hoyland north of Barnsley, South Yorkshire, England. Originally the home of the Spencer and later the Spencer-Stanhope family, it now houses collections of fine furniture, paintings, ceramics and glassware...
and “Fairyland” in the pleasure grounds, which were designed by Sir Walter and his daughter Cecily.
Works
Paintings and other works by John Roddam Spencer Stanhope include:
- Penelope (1849)
- Sir Gawaine and the Damsels at the Fountain (1857), Oxford murals
- Thoughts of the Past (1859)
- Robin of Modern Times (1860)
- Juliet and Her Nurse (exhibited at the Royal Academy 1863)
- The Wine Press (1864)
- Our Lady of the Water Gate (1870)
- Procris and Cephalus (exhibited at the Royal Academy and Liverpool 1872)
- Love and the Maiden (exhibited at the Grosvenor Gallery 1877, now in the collections of the California Palace of the Legion of Honor Art Museum, San Francisco)
- Night (1878)
- The Waters of Lethe by the Plains of Elysium (1879–80)
- The Shulamite (c.1882)
- Charon and Psyche (c. 1883)
- Why Seek Ye the Living Among the Dead? (c. 1886; also known as Resurrection)
- Eve Tempted (1887)
- The Pine Woods of Viareggio (exhibited 1888)
- Flora (1889)
- Holy Trinity Main Altar Polyptych (1892–94)
- Holy Trinity Memorial Chapel Polyptych (1892–94)
- The Escape (c. 1900)
Other works (dates unavailable):
- Andromeda
- Autumn
- Charcoal Thieves
- Cupid and Psyche
- In Memoriam, “in which a barefoot country girl suggestively smiles at the dead or wounded bird she caresses in her hand”
- Love Betrayed (The Russell Cotes Gallery, Bournemouth)
- The Millpond (watercolor with bodycolorGouacheGouache[p], also spelled guache, the name of which derives from the Italian guazzo, water paint, splash or bodycolor is a type of paint consisting of pigment suspended in water. A binding agent, usually gum arabic, is also present, just as in watercolor...
) - Patience On A Monument Smiling At Grief
- The Vision Of Ezekiel: The Valley Of Dry Bones
- The Washing Place
- The White Rabbit
External links
- John Roddam Spencer Stanhope, artist (Victorian Art in Britain)
- History of Cawthorne, Chapter IV, Cannon Hall
- John Roddam Spencer Stanhope by Lewis Carroll (National Portrait Gallery)
- "John Roddam Spencer Stanhope and the Tomb of His Daughter Mary: An Ongoing Research Project" by Nic Peeters and Judy Oberhausen