This exhibition celebrates the lives of the four Whitehouse sisters, Sarah Elizabeth (Lizzie) 1854-1933; Mary Jane (Jeannie) 1855-1933, Louise Caroline (Louie) 1856-1932, and Frances Charlotte (Daisy) 1863-1960, who lived in St. Ives in the late 19th and early 20th Century. None of the sisters married, instead concentrating on a life of art – all four painted – and European travel.
The sisters lived off small inheritances, probably augmented from summer letting of their St. Ives property and, in the case of two of them, from sales of paintings. They travelled extensively, often to Italy and France where Lizzie and Daisy painted. While on one such trip, they suffered a setback when their furniture, stored in St Ives, was destroyed by fire on 10th April 1921, which also sadly claimed the life of a local fireman, William Uren.
The eldest of the four sisters, Sarah Elizabeth, known as Lizzie, who was the most successful of the four artists, was born on the 11th September 1854: the exhibition at Penlee House is timed to open 150 years from the date of her birth.
It is known that Lizzie trained in art in Paris, but details are scant. She sketched compulsively filling books (many of which survive) with figures & faces, buildings & boats, trees & harvest scenes for possible future use; they range from quick pencil sketches to small paintings in watercolour or pastel. It is clear that she was driven by her passion to paint and to record the world around her in her paintings.
In a hand written note, she listed some of her major successes, which included a Bronze Medal for paintingfrom the Academie Delèclude in 1893; inclusion in exhibitions at the Royal Academy and Whitechapel Art Gallery, London; exhibitions in Birmingham, Liverpool, Manchester; the sale of an autotype of one of her paintings to H.M. Queen Alexandria, and the award of a £40 first prize for one of her paintings in the Mellins Art Competition in 1897.
Lizzie and her sisters were keen and active members of the St. Ives Arts Club from its early days. During the First World War, Lizzie was an enthusiastic contributor to the Club’s Ladies Committee and their Sewing Party, in which all four ladies worked, sent parcels of clothing to the Duke of Cornwall’s Light Infantry at the Front, and to several Red Cross Societies including the Belgian. She supported the War Hospital Supply Depot in St. Ives, producing a postcard of her own painting of the nurses rolling bandages there, donating the proceeds of sales of paintings from her studio to the Depot. She also raised money for the First Aid Nursing Yeomanry Corps in Calais by presenting a painting at the Café Chantant which sold for 15s 6d. Her efforts during the war years were acknowledged in Europe more than in England: the King of the Belgians conferred her with the Queen Elisabette Medal ‘for her services to Belgium during the War’.
The youngest of the sisters, Daisy, was also successful in her artistic career, producing, exhibiting and selling her work, which was mostly in watercolour. She outlived her sisters by over 25 years, living on through World War II, until 1960, when she died aged 97, by which time she was nearly blind. She shares a grave in Bordighera, Italy, with Lizzie. Less is known about the two middle sisters, Jeannie and Louie, although both have left examples of their work as proof that the artistic gene went through the family; it also extended to their brother, a painter, photographer and architect who ran the Hyde Park Fine Art Gallery in London.
Their Great-Nephew, Roger Whitehouse, writes “Although I scarcely knew them in my childhood I am filled with admiration now for their courage in facing a tough and sometimes harsh world, with no welfare support to help them through difficult times. I hope this exhibition will show that in remembering them we are also recognising their contribution to the St Ives art scene. It was a worthwhile one that should be better known. They deserve a place in history.”
The exhibition runs from 11th September and continues until 16th October 2004. Also on show are paintings from Penlee House’s permanent and loan collections, including works by Stanhope Forbes (the first showing for a painting now on long-term loan to the Gallery), Elizabeth Forbes, Walter Langley, Percy Craft, Edwin Harris and Harold Harvey.
