Eliza Bridell (née Fox) 1823 – 1903
(née Fox) also known as Tottie.
Painter, art teacher, campaigner for improved educational opportunities for women.
December 1823/January 1824 – 9 December 1903.
Some Key Achievements and Interests
Studied drawing by copying paintings at the British Museum and National Gallery before her father granted permission for her to attend Cary’s School of Art (formerly Sass’s Academy) 1843-1846.
1847 Portrait of William Johnson Fox, her father, shown at the Royal Academy.
1847 Gainsborough shown at the Royal Academy.
1848 Her father allowed his library to be used once a week for women artists, guided by a professional teacher, to sketch an ‘undraped model’ as there was not the possibility of women doing this in art schools at that time.
Tutored women who attended classes in her father’s library.
1857 Joined the Society of Female Artists sending pictures to their exhibitions until 1870.
Supported the campaign for the Married Woman’s Property Bill.
Signed a letter along with other women artists requesting that women be allowed to enter Royal Academy School. (Laura Herford only gained admittance by using her initials to sign the work she submitted.)
1858 Went on a painting tour of Germany and Italy, remaining in Italy until 1863.
1861 St Perpetua and St Felicitas shown at the Royal Society of Female Artists. St Felicitas was depicted as an African which caused a stir.
After the death of her husband in 1862 and father in 1863, Barbara Leigh Smith Bodichon invited her to Algeria where she created some of her best-known works of Arab life and landscapes as well as portraits.
Eliza Bridell Fox; A Woman with Letters (1823/4–1903), Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
1869 returned to London.
Issues
Initially wanted to go on the stage but was discouraged from doing so by her father.
1834 Parents separated with consequent public scandal.
1846 After her mother’s death, looked after her father at the same time as trying to pursue a career in art.
1863 Her husband, Frederick Lee Bridell died.
1864 Her father died adding to her distress.
Connection to Bloomsbury
1843 Moved with her father to Charlotte Street, Bloomsbury.
Cary’s School of Art in Charlotte Street.
Female networks
Close friend of Barbara Leigh Smith Bodichon, Elizabeth Barrett Browning, Mrs Elizabeth Gaskell, Harriet Martineau, Harriet Taylor.
Elizabeth Barrett Browning Rome, 1858 From a chalk drawing by Mrs. E. F. Bridell Fox, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.
Further reading: