Louise’s practice of, and engagement with, sculpture during the 1870s was characterised by the increasing diversity, inventiveness and public exposure of her art and her persona as a royal sculptor. During this period, Louise’s artistic development was informed by her involvement with a progressive art scene which she encountered through private and public sculpture projects, extended social networks and particular exhibition strategies. An important event in Louise’s life was her marriage to the Marquis of Lorne, eldest son of the Duke of Argyll, on 21 March 1871. Yet, marriage did not restrict her artistic freedom, as was often the
hair, & admire her simple arrangement of it. She tells them how to wear theirs, & expresses her disapproval of their wearing nets!’ RA/VIC/ADD/MSS/X/2/211, Journal of Susan E.B. Wallis, 28 Dec. 1865.
433 In her diary, Durant’s friend Emma Wallis, who accompanied Durant to Osborne, recorded that Louise took sculpture
lessons with Durant. ‘[…] the Princess Louise who has a very nice appreciation of art & draws & models, is to do something under Miss Durant’s attention by the Queen’s wish. She wishes to do her sister Helena – but next day she sent in the opposite time to say the Queen wished her to take Lady Churchill - & she announced (now a week ago / & has done a very nice model of her indeed. She had one of Susan’s rooms arranged with Easel & sitting Chair, & as I saw the [progress?] & also saw her & Lady Churchill driving or riding together I saw the likeness was very perfect - & the modelling very good.’ RA/VIC/ADD/MSS/X/2/211, Journal of Susan E.B. Wallis, 11 January 1866.
434 For example, Louise invited Thornycroft to her wedding in 1871. See McCracken (1996/7), p. 6. 435 Diary record of Alfred Domett on 21 March 1877, in Horsman (1953), p. 184.
436 The cast of Thornycroft’s hand forms part of a collection of twenty-four plaster casts of hands acquired by the Victoria
and Abert Museum from the estate of Boehm’s studio in 1892. See Diane Bilbey with Marjroie Trusted, British Sculpture 1470 to 2000. A Concise Catalogue of the Collection at the Victoria and Albert Museum (London: V& A Publications, 2002), pp. 218-19, cat. no. 331.
case for female artists.437 Instead, it increased her independence as she became released from some of her previous court duties and was not constrained by the
duties of a mother since she had no children.438 Lorne, as Louise called her
husband, was well-travelled, interested in art and literature, and had grown up at his London residence at Holland Park within an artistic circle of friends associated
with Aestheticism.439 During the first decade of their marriage, Louise and Lorne
shared numerous social and cultural interests. However, from the 1880s onwards, increasingly they grew apart, probably due to Lorne’s alleged homosexuality, which caused them to live separate lives, yet in mutual respect, without getting
divorced.440
In this section, I firstly consider the artistic and social impact of Louise’s sculpture training during the early 1870s. I look at Louise’s private sculpture training with Boehm. In the Boehm scholarship and Louise’s biographies their artistic relationship has so far been overshadowed by their alleged affair which is
said to have continued until, even produced, Boehm’s death in 1890.441 However,
instead of repeating the details of their private relationship, I examine Boehm’s artistic influence on Louise’s sculptural work. From the early 1870s he introduced her to new materials and a more realist and versatile approach to sculpture which, in turn, was reflected in a widened repertoire of Louise’s oeuvre. I exemplify this influence by analysing three different works by Louise made when Boehm was her teacher. Apart from her private training, from 1875 onwards, Louise also took lessons at the renowned National Art Training School in South Kensington where
437 Shannon Hunter Hurtado, Genteel Mavericks: Professional Women Sculptors in Victorian Britain (Oxford: Peter Lang,
2012),pp. 94-113.
438 Wake (1988), p. 167.
439 For the London residence of Lorne’s family and their social cirlce, see Dakers (1999), pp. 77-78. 440 See Wake (1988), pp. 268, 271-73, 287, 321.
441 For more on Louise’s affair with Boehm and the rumours around his death while being with Louise, see Stocker (1986),
pp. 27-28, 41-44; Wake (1988), pp. 294-96; Elizabeth Longford, Darling Loosy: Letters to Princess Louise1856–1939 (London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 1991), pp. 60-61; Lucinda Hawksley, The Mystery of Princess Louise: Queen Victoria's Rebellious Daughter (London: Chatto & Windus, 2013), pp. 237-48.
she gained the opportunity to meet with fellow female artists. By looking at Louise’s artistic relationships with other students, I consider the social significance of being at a public art school for her artistic self-confidence and networks. In addition to her public training, from the mid-1870s onwards Louise became an important female figure within the progressive artistic milieu of the Aesthetic Movement. This was particularly apparent at the Grosvenor Gallery where Louise exhibited from 1878. Through the examination of her exhibition works I assess how Louise negotiated her artistic identity as a royal with high social responsibility, and as a female amateur sculptor eager to be recognised as a serious artist.
Private training with Boehm
The idea for Louise to take sculpture lessons with Boehm was prompted by the success of Boehm’s first royal commission in early 1869. Originally from Vienna and trained in Paris, Boehm settled in London in 1862 and developed a reputation
for his ability in modelling attractive equestrian portrait statuettes.442 By January
1869, the fashion for Boehm’s statuettes had come to the attention of the Queen who summoned the sculptor to Osborne to demonstrate his skills and model,
amongst others, a statuette of Louise on horseback.443 Certainly impressed by
Boehm’s particular charm, which the Queen described as ‘gentlemanlike, clever
& excessively modest’,444 it is likely that Louise convinced her mother to ask
Boehm if he could give her sculpture lessons in order to further her skills and
knowledge of the medium. Boehm’s reply to this enquiry was that he felt to
442 See Stocker (1988), pp. 15, 79.
443 QVJ lists twelve entries for Boehm’s stay at Osborne between 21 Jan. and 15 Feb. 1869, see
http://www.queenvictoriasjournals.org [accessed: 5 July 2013]; For Victoria’s commission of an equestrian statuette of Louise, seeQVJ, 21 January 1869, http://www.queenvictoriasjournals.org [accessed: 5 July 2013].
accept Louise as his pupil would ‘not only be an honour for him but a real
pleasure’.445 Pointing out, though, that he had no teaching experience in London
and no intention in this direction, Boehm claimed that his change of mind was
prompted by his recognition of Louise’s ‘unquestionable talent for sculpting’.446
While such emphatic appraisal of Louise’s talent certainly contained a touch of flattery intended to give her admission the air of exclusiveness, it is likely that Boehm also counted on further royal commissions from his teaching engagement, just like Thornycroft before him.
Louise’s first lessons with Boehm commenced during the sculptor’s second royal appointment, in the autumn of 1869, when he accompanied the royal family to their Scottish seat at Balmoral to model some statuettes of the Highland
Games.447 After at least two weeks with the royal family,448 the outcome of
Boehm’s lessons to Louise were two half-life-size busts in plaster of Louise’s
younger brother Prince Leopold [fig. 2.18] and of her German cousin Amélie of
Saxe-Coburg [fig. 2.19], both of whom were staying at Balmoral at the time.449 While the bust of Leopold, depicting the prince in contemporary costume and with a calm and timeless expression, appears stylistically still in line with the
neoclassical approach of Louise’s earlier portrait of Prince Arthur (1867), the
rendering of Amélie’s bust was clearly influenced by Boehm’s recent portrait
style with subtle feminine allure. With an evocative baroque hairstyle and a frilled
neckline accentuating her bosom with a rose flower, Amélie resembled a recent
445 ‘[…] nicht nur eine Ehre, sondern auch ein wahres Vergnügen sein.' Letter from the royal librarian Hermann Sahl, who
corresponded with Boehm on the Queen’s behalf, reporting back to Queen Victoria, RA/VIC/ADDT/104, 10 February 1869.
446 ‘[…] unzweifelhaftes Talent fur Sculptur' See, ibid.
447 On 10 March 1869, the Queen informed Vicky that Boehm ‘is going to come to Balmoral in the Autumn, to do what
dear Papa always wished – Statuettes of the Highland Games for me, - wh. I think will be vy. pretty.’ RA/VIC/ADDU32, Queen Victoria to Vicky, 10 March 1869.
448 Boehm’s stay at Balmoral is recorded in QVJ, 17 September, 2 October 1869, http://www.queenvictoriasjournals.org
[accessed: 5 July 2013].
449 The visit of Amélie of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha at Balmoral is recorded in QVJ between 2 and 18 October 1869,
bust by Boehm of the Countess of Cardigan (1868–69) [fig. 2.20].450 Yet while Boehm’s composition was even more flattering and vigorously modelled,
showing the sitter with a sensual upward gaze and deeper décolletage,451 Louise
moderated her portrait of Amélie by representing her with the head turned aside for a more contemplative and respectable expression. As first proofs of her new direction in sculpture, Louise gave both busts from Balmoral to her mother as a Christmas present in 1869. Although not commissioning their translation into marble, Victoria confirmed her appreciation of the gifts by placing them as a pair in one of the most venerated rooms at Osborne, Albert’s Dressing and Writing
Room, where they were close to, and adorned by, Louise’s dead father.452
Through her continuous artistic relationship with Boehm, Louise explored new ways of sculptural representation, experimented with new materials and broadened her public exposure in the art world, while also choosing sculptural themes with highly personal relevance. The discussion of three different projects – an equestrian statue in bronze (1871), a self-portrait in terracotta (early 1870s), and a funerary monument in marble (c.1871) – serve to show the variety and ambitions of Louise’s work during the early 1870s.
The equestrian statue of Edward, The Black Prince
The first major work which attests to Boehm’s invigorating influence on Louise’s work and to her increased confidence as a sculptor is the half-life-size equestrian
statue of Edward, The Black Prince, exhibited in plaster at the London
International Exhibition in 1871.453 The so-called Black Prince, eldest son of King
450 Stocker (1988), pp. 64, 69. 451 See Ibid., pp. 63-64, images 46-48. 452 Catalogue (1876), nos. 271, 272, on p. 97.
453 London International Exhibition of 1871: Official Catalogue: Fine Arts Department, third revision (London: J. M.
Edward III, was a popular chivalric subject in mid-Victorian art and literature. Celebrated in post-Napoleonic historical accounts as a symbol of England’s victorious battles against France during the fourteenth century, the Black Prince embodied the Victorian notion of chivalry ‘with all the good qualities of a knight’, summoned as ‘brave yet gentle, skilful yet modest, an affectionate and unvarying friend, a master easily served, a generous adversary, a prince at once dignified and
gracious’.454 As an English royal forbear and alleged male role model, the Black
Prince was not only a national symbol, but in Louise’s case, a select artistic subject during the time of her search for a husband with ideal masculine qualities
comparable to those ascribed to the Black Prince.455 In fact, while Louise gave the
original plaster model of the Black Prince to her mother as a birthday present,456 a
subsequent version in bronze went to Inverary, the Scottish family seat of Louise’s husband, where it was prominently displayed, then and today, in the entrance hall of the castle as a symbol of the supposedly ideal union between
Louise and Lorne [fig. 2.21].457 In line with the Victorian tale of the Black Prince,
the statue depicts the prince in full armour, sitting triumphantly on a charger, ready to draw his sword. Through several royal and heraldic symbols he is quickly identifiable. Over his helmet and fall, he wears a coronet, his tabard is emblazoned with his coat of arms, and the horse’s flank trappings are decorated with the ostrich feathers, denoting the prince’s title as Prince of Wales. In
454 George Payne Rainsford James, A History of the Life of Edward the Black Prince, vol. 1 (London: Longman, 1836), p.
494. For more on the importance of chivalry during the Victorian era, see Girouard (1981).
455 During the selection process of an appropriate husband, Louise made it clear that she had distinct ideas of the masculine
qualities her future husband should possess. For example, she pointed out that she found the aesthete Ronald Gower too ‘effeminate’ to be considered by her. See extract from the Diary of the Marquess of Lorne, 16 August 1870, Archive Inverary, Bundle 1066.
456 On 21 May 1871, Louise explained to her mother-in-law, the Duchess of Argyll that ‘[i]t is quite true I did make a
model of a horse & man wh. is in the exhibitions, it was kept secret as it was for Mama’s birthday.’ Archive Inverary, Bundle 719.
457 An engraving in the Illustrated London News of 1877 shows the Black Prince in situ on the chimneypiece in the Hall of
Inverary Castle. See Anon., ‘The Fire at Inverary Castle’, Illustrated London News (27 Oct. 1877), pp. 397-98; After having been placed outdoors during the twentieth century, the statue of the Black Prince is today reinstalled at its original site in the Entrance Hall of the castle.
addition, the front trappings bear the mottoes ‘Houmout’ and ‘Ich Dien’, as
signifiers of the prince’s chivalrous virtues of ‘valour’ and ‘modesty’.458
For a female amateur sculptor, the heroic, masculine figure of the Black
Prince was a highly unusual subject, especially since equestrian statuary was traditionally considered to be the domain of male professionals. In preparation for her work, it is likely that Louise studied popular literary descriptions of the Black Prince and would have seen either the original tomb effigy at Canterbury Cathedral or its plaster replica at the Crystal Palace at Sydenham. Her most
evident source, however, was a small equestrian bronze replica of Edward, The
Black Prince (c.1861) designed by Carlo Marochetti (1805–67), which Victoria
had bought for the royal collection in 1868 [fig. 2.22].459 There are several points
of comparison between the two works to suggest that Louise had Marochetti’s interpretation in mind when she devised her own composition. The similar solemn pose of the prince and the horse and the detailed rendering of the knight’s armour all suggest Marochetti’s work as a model for Louise. Yet, while imitating some aspects, Louise was also including deliberate differences in her interpretation. Apart from reversing the direction of the prince’s gaze to the left rather than to the right, she altered the action of the prince’s right arm, here ready to draw the sword, whereas in Marochetti’s work he holds the sword aloft. As was often the practice for any sculptors who modelled a well-known subject, Louise was reflecting on and reconsidering, rather than copying, the composition of her model in mind, probably with the purpose of improving on or rivalling it. In fact, the original purpose of Marochetti’s design suggests an identification of Louise’s interest in this model. Originally conceived in 1848, Marochetti’s statue design
458 The exact meaning and origin of the word ‘Houmout’ were, however, subject to speculation during the mid-Victorian
period. See George Payne Rainsford James, A History of the Life of Edward the Black Prince, vol. 2 (London: Longman, 1836), p. 491.
formed part of a sculptural programme envisaged by Prince Albert for the outside
of the new Houses of Parliament where the Black Prince was to form a pendant to
a similar equestrian statue of Richard Coeur de Lion (1856), also by Marochetti.
However, while the latter was executed and installed in 1860, the commission for the Black Prince failed to materialise after Albert’s death in the following year.460
It is therefore not impossible that Louise intended her statue of the Black Prince
not only as a reference to her father’s unachieved project, but sought to revive the idea of a pendant equestrian monument for the Houses of Parliament, possibly with herself as the sculptor. The scale of her half-life-size statue suggests that Louise considered her work not as a decorative statue for private use but instead as a serious sculpture model which suggested, in its preliminary state, the effect of a life-size monument. Although there are no official documents to suggest a royal initiative regarding the revival of Albert’s original sculpture programme, Louise
evidently pursued public recognition for her Black Prince. Shown, as mentioned
above, at the London International Exhibition in 1871, the statue received
compliments in the Art Journal for its accuracy in historical costume and
successful conception as ‘beautiful in character and in execution worthy of all praise.’461
Self-portrait bust in terracotta
The second work which attests to Louise’s increasing artistic confidence during the early 1870s is a self-portrait bust in terracotta, an intimate reflection of her artistic personality [fig. 2.23]. Set on a simple wooden plinth, the bust depicts Louise wearing an open-neck dress with fur-lined drapery around her shoulders
460 For more on the background of the failure of Prince Albert’s project see John Harrison, ‘The Prince, the Baron and the
‘Black Prince’’, The British Art Journal V, no. 2 (autumn 2004), pp. 62-68.
and looking out to the left with a serene but contemplative expression. Her straight posture and the fine detail of her dress provide a sense of formality, indicating Louise’s royal status. Yet, the overall simplicity of the composition without any further jewellery accessories focuses the attention on the delicate expression of her face. The long neck and smooth features give Louise a sense of pride and dignity, whereas the closed lips and pierced eyes suggest a high degree of sensitivity, inspired with an air of melancholy. While the bust appears, on the one hand, timeless and regal, its subtle, realistic modelling provides it with an engaging immediacy, which seems to hint at the tensions of Louise’s personal situation, being caught between the expectation of royal appearance and her wish for individual self-determination. The underlying sense of fragility is also imbued in the choice of terracotta as material for the bust. While portraits, especially of royalty, were usually carved in marble as a sign of the sitter’s constancy and