After Leighton and Millais - 1896
mong those who had come to pay their respects as Frederic Leighton's body lay in his studio, were the artists Charles and Kate Perugini. Kate was the daughter of Charles Dickens, and the couple were Kensington neighbours of Leighton in Victoria Road. Very soon afterwards, Charles began to paint a tribute to Leighton, his great friend and mentor since Perugini's youth. But O for the touch of a vanish'd hand, And the sound of a voice that is still! (Perez Simon collection), was inspired by Tennyson's poem "Break, Break, Break," the Laureate's response to the loss of his own friend, Arthur Hallam. Perugini would have known Mary Lloyd and the paintings for which she had sat for Leighton and Millais and he chose her for this mournful, elegiac picture. He painted her seated, wearing an ivory damask, Renaissance-style dress, her eyes closed, her head resting on her hand in the traditional attitude of Melancholy. Some areas of the picture appear to be hastily finished, presumably so that it would be ready in time for the Academy that summer of 1896.
Charles Perugini's "But O for the touch of a vanish'd hand, And the sound of a voice that is still!" (1896). [Click on all the images for more information, and to see larger versions.]
The picture was not sold and Perugini later donated it to the War Fund, instigated by John William Waterhouse for the relief of British casualties and widows of the second Boer War, 1899-1902. The work of the many artists who contributed to the Fund went on public view before being sold at auction at Christie's in 1900. Although the Prince of Wales bid for the picture, its location remained a mystery until it reappeared and was sold to the present owner by Christie's, Amsterdam, in 2010.
Frank Dicksee's The Mirror (private collection) was also on display at the Academy in 1896, again casting Mary as a seductive, lipsticked, femme fatale, within another setting of claustrophobic opulence. Swathed in sumptuous rose and ivory oriental silks, woven with gold thread, which slip off her creamy shoulder, Mary is seated on an elaborate, engraved steel throne inlaid with mother-of-pearl as she gazes at her reflection in a hand mirror. The picture was generally praised by the London art press in such terms as: "a fresh and lovely illustration of the artist's exceptional skill in the presentation of beautiful types of womanhood enhanced to their highest power of attraction by luxurious costume and accessories, all rendered with high technical skill." However, the picture was of the type, together with Dicksee's The Magic Crystal, damned by the writer, George Moore, as "the stockbrokers taste in art," a stark contrast to the contemplative, spiritual and supernatural characters Mary had embodied for Leighton and Millais. The picture had been painted for Sir Philip Waterlow, the wealthy chairman of a large company of commercial engravers.
Frank Dicksee's The Mirror (1896).
It seems that The Mirror was the last picture by Dicksee to feature Mary. His next major work, Dawn, required a full - frontal nude which would have been unacceptable to Mary, and she was replaced by the less inhibited, fair-haired actress / model Rachel Lee, who now became Dicksee's chief muse.
Nevertheless, Mary was riding high and she later said that "I lived for the moment, never dreaming I should ever be in need." We do not know any details about her personal life at this time. There is no suggestion that she may have been interested in a career on the stage. Nor was she ever linked romantically with any of the artists who employed her. A portrait photo of her, surviving from this time, shows her distinctive face, her throat encircled by a string of pearls.
Draper's picture for the Academy in 1896, The Golden Chain (private collection), had Mary standing in three-quarter length profile to the right, dressed in dark velvet, over it a large, gauzy, ruffled white shawl. The stimulus for this picture, described as "a piece of carefully studied grace . . . full of the charm of dainty personality," was the Elizabethan/Jacobean poet, Thomas Campion's, lines: "And if you wear it it shall signal 'Aye'."
Leighton and Millais Memorial Exhibitions
In January 1897, a year after his death, a Leighton Memorial Exhibition opened at the Academy. Mary as the unfinished Fair Persian (untraced) was on display, along with Atalanta, Corinna, 'Twixt Hope and Fear and Clytie. Leighton had also been working on the Fair Persian at the time of his death. Now known only from old photographs, this work shows Mary's crowned head and animated expression seen from a low viewpoint. The picture attracted much attention, the writer of the Graphic magazine commenting that the Fair Persian was "a work of the utmost beauty, and full of that quality - mystery - which he so rarely imported into his pictures." The same reviewer also commented that "In Clytie, we have a touch of genuine passion, together with a glory of sunset more just in colour than the painter used us to."
Mary Lloyd was also a strong presence in Millais' Memorial Exhibition in 1898, when St Stephen, Speak! Speak! and A Disciple were all on show.
Mary worked again for Charles Perugini and another close associate and near neighbour of Leighton, Herbert Gustave Schmalz, in 1901, when she was living with easy access to both artists in Holland St., Kensington. The sitting for Perugini may have been for The Dreamer, a pensive Roman maiden seated in a marble enclosure beside a water fountain, her head resting on one hand (location unknown). Mary saved an illustration of the picture amongst her keepsakes. Her work for Schmalz has not been identified.
The Alma Tademas
Laurence Alma Tadema's Silver Favourites (1903).
Mary continued to work for Lawrence Alma Tadema and is likely a model in Whispering Noon (private collection), 1896, Watching (private collection), 1897 and Thermae Antoninianae, 1899 (private collection). It seems Mary had a more personal connection with the Alma Tadema family than solely that of artist and model. She was around the same age as Alma Tadema's two daughters, who were suffragists and political activists. They were both unmarried, as was Mary. She posed for watercolours for the younger daughter, Anna. The elder daughter, Laurence, a poet and playwright, presented Mary with a copy of her play, One Way of Love, published 1893. The play was performed privately for invited guests at Alma Tadema's grand studio-house in Grove End Road, St John's Wood. It is possible that Mary attended a performance. (A scan of the original publication of this historical romance, set in the seventeenth century, was made in 2009 and is available from Amazon.)
Alma Tadema went on to paint Mary in Silver Favourites, RA 1903 (Manchester Art Gallery), as an indolent Roman lady, gorgeously attired, lounging on a marble bench beneath a bright blue Mediterranean sky, while one of her companions feeds fish in a circular marble pool. In 1908, Alma Tadema sent Mary a telegram, dated 23 August, to wish her "Many happy returns of today," her 45th birthday. Following the death of his wife, Laura, in 1909, Mary is likely the model for Alma Tadema's poignant The Voice of Spring (private collection),1910. Alma Tadema died in 1912.
The Chapel of the Ascension
Frederic Shields' The Ascension (1894).
Frederic Shields, from the Leighton / Millais generation and an associate of Rossetti and the Pre-Raphaelites, also employed Mary. His rambling garden studio was in Morayfield, Wimbledon and his arrangement with her included paying the 1 shilling cab fare from Wimbledon station. Shields was embarked on the commission of his lifetime, "a significant architectural undertaking driven by the extreme piety on the part of patron and painter." Shields and a wealthy widow, Emilia Russell Gurney, worked very closely on the scheme, together with the architect Hubert Horne, for the building and decoration of the Chapel of the Ascension in Bayswater Road, opposite Hyde Park. Shields said the building, in early Renaissance north Italian style, was for the paintings, rather than the paintings for the building. He was working on the complex iconographic series between 1894 and 1896, when there was a public viewing, due to the patron's precarious health. The whole scheme was not complete until 1911, just before Shields' death. The "strange, unworldly little building" and its huge cycle of paintings were destroyed by bombing during the World War II and completely cleared away in 1969. As Shields' preparatory designs are scattered among collections in the UK, US and Canada, it has not been possible to judge the extent of Mary's involvement, though it is likely to have been significant. She may have sat for the figure of Conscience in both Man Hearkens to the Appeal of Conscience and Man Repels the Appeal of Conscience (both Hartlepool Museum). The head of the Virgin in the design for The Annunciation (Manchester Art Gallery), 1893-94, and drawings for Wisdom and the Malicious Babbler (both Delaware Art Museum) may also have been based on Mary.
The Leighton Memorial
The figure of Sculpture on Sir Thomas Brock's Leighton Memorial.
Not long after Leighton's death, a memorial to him in St Paul's Cathedral had been suggested. The sculptor, Thomas Brock, was the natural choice for the commission. He was a close associate of Leighton and had assisted him with bronze casting when Leighton began to sculpt. Brock's Diploma Work for the Royal Academy had been a bronze portrait bust of Leighton, 1892. The monument consists of a recumbent bronze effigy of the deceased artist, wearing the robes of Doctor of Law of Oxford University and the gold pendant of the President of the Royal Academy. At his head sits a female figure, with artist's brush and palette, symbolising the art of Painting. At his feet, another woman symbolising the art of Sculpture, supports on her left hand a miniature version of Leighton's bronze, The Sluggard, a languid male figure. In her right hand she holds a modelling tool. Brock's studio was in Osnaburgh St., near Gt. Portland St. Station. Mary sat for Brock for the figure of Sculpture and it was later said that "no statue could be a complete tribute to his (Leighton's) memory without her." The memorial was unveiled in 1902. Millais was also memorialised by Brock in a large full-length standing bronze installed outside the Tate Gallery (now Tate Britain) in 1905, the home of Millais' three major pictures inspired by Mary, though none are currently on display there.
The Victoria Memorial
The figure of Justice on Sir Thomas Brock's Victoria Memorial.
Queen Victoria died at the beginning of 1901. Almost immediately, Edward VII proposed a memorial to his mother to be sited at the head of the Mall, in front of Buckingham Palace. It would be the largest commemorative monument in the British Isles. Brock won the commission and devised a massive marble figure of Victoria with a gilded winged Victory above her.
Three marble female figures symbolising the personal qualities of the monarch - Truth, Justice and Motherhood, would be placed either side and behind the statue of the Queen on the plinth. Mary sat for the figure of Justice, which faces Green Park. When the monument was unveiled in 1911, Malcolm C. Salaman of the Studio, described Justice as "an energetic, kindly angel," helmeted, a sword in her left hand, while her right hand was extended "to help and protect the weak and oppressed in the pathetic form of a nude, suffering girl, while the scales are carried by a child." Brock was almost immediately knighted for his gargantuan effort. The Victoria Memorial has since formed a focal point for many national events, including the Diamond Jubilee celebrations and the Olympic Games parade, 2012, Platinum Jubilee Concert, 2022 and most recently, Animal Rebellion protesters dumped red dye in the fountain, August 2024.
Links to Other Parts
- Part I: The First Sittings; the Royal Academy Exhibition of 1893
- Part II: Sitting for Millais; Mary and the Royal Academy Exhibition of 1894
- Part III: After Leighton and Millais: 1896
- Part V: Later Appearances; the Final Years; Bibliography
Created 25 September 2024