Slade School of Art Women Alumni

Slade School of Art, UCL.

Slade School of Art: Women’s Life class: Digital photo of magazine Illustration for an article in the Sketch magazine 1895 Bertha Newcombe, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

The Slade, opening October 1871, accepted both male and female students on the same terms.  Students were admitted on the merit of a portfolio and following an interview.

Some courses were different for men and for women however, scholarships were available for both. Women were permitted to draw from a partially draped model. Women had their own refreshment room and female attendant.

Fees covered tuition but not materials although some scholarships were offered.

1876-1892 Slade Professor: Alphonese Legros.

400 students stayed in College Hall between 1882 and 1912 including 160 from the Slade School of Art.

Further reading:

Attwood, Philip; The Slade Girls; 1986_BNJ_56_10.pdf (britnumsoc.org)

Charlotte Weeks entitled ‘Women at Work: the Slade Girls’

See below for some 19th century Slade alumni.

Check main entries in

Women in Art: individual biographies of some Slade alumni: Bertha Newcombe, Catherine (Kate) Greenaway, Christiana Herringham, Edith Downing, Edna Clarke Hall, Elinor Monsell, Ellen Rope, Evelyn De Morgan, Gwen John, Jessie Mothersole, Mary Seton Watts, Sophia Praeger, Ursula Tyrwhitt.

Women Social Reformists: Constance Markievicz.

A

Annie Elizabeth Fredericka Horniman	(nickname Tabbie)	1860-1937
Theatre patron.
1882 Entered the Slade but withdrew in 1885 acknowledging that she had little artistic talent. Re-enrolled 1886-1888. (DOC) Beatrice Offor Artist 1864-1920 | Alan Walker – Academia.edu
1890-1903 Member of the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn. Supported theatres (Avenue Theatre, the Abbey Theatre, the Gaiety Theatre and actors. Supported the suffrage cause speaking at many meetings. 1933 Awarded Order of the Companions of Honour for services to drama.
Female networks: Mina Bergson, Florence Farr.
Other Bloomsbury connection: Studied at the British Museum.
Horniman, Annie Elizabeth Fredericka (1860–1937), theatre patron and manager | Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (oxforddnb.com) Annie Horniman: Rebel with a Cause by Sharon O’Connor (dulwichsociety.com) The thoroughly modern Annie Horniman – Horniman Museum and Gardens Annie Horniman – Wikipedia

B

Beatrice Offor		21 March 1864- 7 August 1920
Portrait artist.
1882-1885 Studied Fine Art and Fine Art Anatomy at the Slade School of Art. 1855-56 Re-enrolled at the Slade.
Exhibited regularly at the Royal Academy of Arts. Exhibited with the Society of Lady Artists, the Royal Albert Hall Picture Gallery. Became known for her ‘Offor heads’, portraits of young women. Her later work has prompted discussion of her as an esoteric or occult artist.
Female networks:  Annie Horniman, Moina Mathers.
Other Bloomsbury connection: 1888, 1890, 1892 Possibly lived 41 Grafton Street. (DOC) Beatrice Offor Artist 1864-1920 | Alan Walker – Academia.edu
THE TRAGIC GENIUS OF PAINTER BEATRICE OFFOR (1864-1920) TO BE REMEMBERED IN CENTENARY EXHIBITION – Friends of Brockley & Ladywell Cemeteries (foblc.org.uk) (DOC) Beatrice Offor Artist 1864-1920 | Alan Walker – Academia.edu

C

Caroline Burland Gotch (née Yates)		9 May 1854 – 14 December 1945
Artist.
1880 Enrolled at the Slade School of Art.
Other art training: 1879 Heatherley’s School of Art 1878, 1880 Academie Julian, Paris.
1879-1898 Showed works at Society of Women Artists, Royal Academy, Glass Palace in Munich, the Paris Salon
Founded the St Ives Art Club with her husband, Thomas Cooper Gotch.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caroline_Gotch#cite_note-CWallace-1 Caroline Burland GOTCH | Cornwall Artists Index

Caroline Charlotte Townshend		4 September 1878 – 10 June 1944
Stained glass artist, suffragette.
Studied at Slade School of Fine Art. Attended classes at Central School of Arts and Crafts.
Some 20c achievements: 1903 Set up her own studio at The Glass House in Fulham, West London. 1910 Was a Labour Party Candidate for the Board of Guardians in Fulham. 1910 The Fabian Window. 1912 Stood for election to Fulham Borough Council as a Fabian and Independent Labour Party candidate. 1918 Designed banners for the Fabian Society, executed by 19 women, and for the Conservative and Unionist Women’s Franchise Association. 1920 Set up company with Joan Howson called Townshend & Howson. Designed stained glass windows for churches.
Member of the Fabian Society
Other Bloomsbury connection: Born in Endsleigh Street
Female networks inc: colleague Joan Howson
http://user.astro.wisc.edu/~townsend/tree/record.php?ref=5D31 https://womanandhersphere.com/tag/caroline-townshend/ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caroline_Townshend

D

Dora Meeson (married name Coates)		7 August 1869 – 24 March 1955
Artist, suffragist.
1896 Attended Slade School having studied at the Melbourne National Gallery School in 1895. 1898-99 Pursued further art study at the Académie Julian, Paris.
Exhibited at the Royal Institute of Oil Painters, the Royal Academy, the Royal Society of Arts, the Society of Women Artists and Paris Salon. Became actively involved in the suffrage movement. See further reading for details.
Female networks inc: Caroline Watts, Christiana Herringham, Emily Harding Andrews, Mary Lowndes.
Dora Meeson Coates (spartacus-educational.com) https://www.buru.org.uk/record.php?id=898 https://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/meeson-dora-6318 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dora_Meeson /media/06_Visit_Parliament/Parl_House_Art_Collection/Women_and_suffrage/Scott_Meeson_suffrage_banner.pdf?la=en&hash=F379DF947F3454ED57EE0C0531807A898A157FD9

E

Elinor Jessie Marie Hallé		1856 – 18 May 1926
Sculptor, medallist, enameller.
1877-1883 Attended the Slade. See sculptors at the Slade; Philip Attwood: Sculptors at the Slade  – Pascal Theatre Company (pascal-theatre.com)
1885 Produced a medallion commemorating Felix Slade, founder of the Slade School which was displayed at the School. 1885 Won 1st prize in a competition for medals with her entry being displayed at the first exhibition of the Society of Medallists and where she exhibited in following years. Exhibited at the Arts and Crafts Exhibition Society, the New Gallery (from 1888) and the Royal Academy (including medals of Cardinals Manning, Mercier and Newman). 1890 Commissioned to do Emin Pasha Expedition medal for the Royal Geographical Society. Created insignia for the Order of the British Empire and the collar for the Victoria Order. During WW1 volunteered with the Surgical Requisites Association. Created plaster casts, wrapped in papier-mâché as splints for broken limbs. Awarded CBE after the war.
Other Bloomsbury connection: British Museum
Female networks Slade students including Anne Crawford Acheson, Ellen Rope and war colleagues.
Further reading and details of work see: 1986_BNJ_56_10.pdf (britnumsoc.org) Atwood, Philip; Elinor Halle The Medal (PDF) Elinor Halle | Philip Attwood – Academia.edu ‘Miss Elinor Jessie Marie Hallé CBE’, Mapping the Practice and Profession of Sculpture in Britain and Ireland 1851-1951, University of Glasgow History of Art and HATII, online database 2011 [http://sculpture.gla.ac.uk/view/person.php?id=msib5_1207150652, accessed 27 Jun 2023]

Ella Casella	Ella Casella & Nelia Casella (known as The Casella Sisters)	3 January 1858 – 3 September 1946
Sculptor, wax modeller, illustrator.
Mid 1880s Studied at the Slade.
Took on solo commissions or collaborated on joint work with her sister. 1895 Commissioned, with her sister, by the Royal Astronomical Society to create the medal for the Jackson-Gwilt Prize in Astronomy. Showed at the Arts and Crafts Exhibition Society at Leeds City Art Gallery, Royal Academy of Arts and Walker Art Gallery.
Other Bloomsbury connection: British Museum where she studied medals in their collection.
‘Miss Ella Casella’, Mapping the Practice and Profession of Sculpture in Britain and Ireland 1851-1951, University of Glasgow History of Art and HATII, online database 2011 [https://sculpture.gla.ac.uk/view/person.php?id=msib5_1208550230, accessed 16 Nov 2023] https://modernbritishartgallery.com/artists/ella-casella/ 1986_BNJ_56_10.pdf (britnumsoc.org) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Casella_Sisters https://www.fellows.co.uk/blog/antiques/2023/02/24/ella-and-nelia-casella/

Ethel Walker	Made Dame 1943	9 June 1861 – 2 March 1951
Portrait painter, sculptor.
1893-1895 Studied at the Slade School of Art. 1912 & 1916 Slade to study fresco and tempera painting. 1921 Returned to the Slade to study sculpture.
Other art training: Ridley School of Art, London, c1883 Putney School of Art, London, 1892-4 Westminster School of Art.
From 1898 Exhibited at the Royal Academy. 1900 Elected to the New English Art Club (NEAC), the first woman member.  She exhibited here for many years. Gained a reputation as a painter of flowers and seascapes and later for her portraits. Exhibited at the Royal Scottish Academy, the Royal Society of Arts and the Lefevre Gallery. Her growing interest in philosophy, mysticism and religion fed into her later paintings. 1922, 1924, 1928, 1930 Represented Britain at the Venice Biennale. 1932 Elected Honorary President of the Women’s International Art Club. 1938  Made a CBE for her art. 1940 Elected an Associate of the Royal Academy. 1943 Created a DBE.
Female network inc: Barbara Hepworth, Clara Christian with whom she shared a studio, Grace English, Vanessa Bell.
Walker, Dame Ethel (1861–1951), painter and sculptor | Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (oxforddnb.com) Ethel Walker: painter of women | Art UK Ethel Walker – Wikipedia Citing this record ‘Dame Ethel Walker NEAC, RBA, ARA’, Mapping the Practice and Profession of Sculpture in Britain and Ireland 1851-1951, University of Glasgow History of Art and HATII, online database 2011 [http://sculpture.gla.ac.uk/view/person.php?id=msib5_1213364164, accessed 27 Jun 2023]

F

Feodora Gleichen	Lady Feodora Gleichen	20 December 1861 – 22 January 1922
Sculptor, medallist, designer.
1878/9- 1884 Studied sculpture at the Slade School of Art. Possibly also 1893-4. Further studies in Rome.
From 1892 exhibited regularly at the Royal Academy and the Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool. 1895 Statue of Queen Victoria surrounded by children, Royal Victoria Hospital, Montreal, Quebec, Canada. 1899 Diana Fountain in Hyde Park.This broke bounds displaying a nude rather than draped woman. Member of the Society of Medallists, exhibiting in the Society’s exhibitions in 1899 and 1901. 1900 Won a bronze medal at the Exposition Universelle in Paris for a bas-relief and hand-mirror in jade and bronze. Hon member of Royal Society of Painter-Etchers, member of the Arts and Crafts Exhibition Society. 1903-1915 Worked in studio in the garden of St James ‘s Palace where she produced royal busts and medals. 1906 Won commission for a bronze relief of Queen Hatasu of Egypt for the National Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney. 1912 King Edward VII memorial, King Edward VII Hospital, Windsor, United Kingdom. 1914 Statue of Florence Nightingale, Derbyshire Royal Infirmary. 1921 Head of a Girl is included in the permanent collection of the Tate Gallery. 1921 Head of Feisal I, King of Iraq. 1922 Awarded the Légion d’honneur. 1922 Posthumously made the first woman member of the Royal British Society of Sculptors. Royal Academy Gleichen award named after her.
Female networks included: Elinor Hallé, sister Helena Emily Gleichen with whom she shared a studio, Mary Swainson, Maude Berry.
‘HSH Countess Feodora Maud Georgina Gleichen’, Mapping the Practice and Profession of Sculpture in Britain and Ireland 1851-1951, University of Glasgow History of Art and HATII, online database 2011 [https://sculpture.gla.ac.uk/view/person.php?id=msib2_1205534661, accessed 21 Nov 2023] HSH Countess Feodora Maud Georgina Gleichen – Mapping the Practice and Profession of Sculpture in Britain and Ireland 1851-1951 (gla.ac.uk) Atwood, Philip: the Slade Girls; 1986_BNJ_56_10.pdf (britnumsoc.org) Gleichen, Lady Feodora Georgina Maud (1861–1922), sculptor | Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (oxforddnb.com) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lady_Feodora_Gleichen https://sculptors.org.uk/about/our-archive/pioneering-women/feodora-gleichen

I

Ida Nettleship	(married name John)	1877 – 1907
Painter, draughtsman
1892-98 Studied at the Slade aged 15. Won prizes and in 1895 offered a three-year scholarship at the Slade. Continued her training in Florence and Paris.
Issues: 12 January 1901 at St Pancras Registry Office secretly married Augustus John who she met at the Slade and of whom her parents didn’t approve. Within three months she was pregnant and had five sons between 1902 and 1907. John did not support her to pursue her art and she felt confined to a life of domesticity. Dorelia McCeill, one of Augustus’ mistresses, joined the family with the support of Ida, but the ménage à trois attracted public criticism. Died aged 30 after the birth of her fifth son.
Female Networks: Edna Clarke Hall (née Waugh), Gwen John, Gwen Salmond, Ursula Tyrwhitt.
John, Rebecca & Holroyd, Michael; The Good Bohemian: The Letters of Ida John 2018 Bloomsbury Ida Nettleship – Wikipedia Unfulfilled Potential: The Forgotten Women Artists of the Slade School (pallant.org.uk)

Isabelle de Steiger (née Lace)		28 February 1836 – 1 January 1927
Painter, theosophist, occultist, and writer.
1874 Registered at the Slade.
Began a career as a professional painter but is said to have experienced prejudice against women which made it difficult to rent studio space and attend life classes, as well as social obstacles to women having an independent career Became a member of the Theosophical Society, Hermetic Society, the Society for Psychical Research. 1888 Joined Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn. 1912 Founded an Alchemical Society.
Female Network: Anna Kingsford, Madame Helena Blavatsky, Mabel Collins, alchemist Mary Anna Atwood.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isabelle_de_Steiger https://www.oxforddnb.com/display/10.1093/ref:odnb/9780198614128.001.0001/odnb-9780198614128-e-53851?mediaType=Image http://www.caduceusbooks.com/nextlist-3-17/steiger.htm

L

Leonora Philipps (née Gerstenberg)	(also known as Nora Philipps, and Mrs Wynford Philipps and from 1908 Lady St Davids)	4 November 1862 – 30 March 1915
Political activist, philanthropist.
Attended Slade School of Art studying metalwork and at Birkbeck University College. 1876 Registered to attend lectures at Bedford College. Attended Royal Academy of Dramatic Art and received private tuition from actor Isabella Glyn.
1888 After her marriage championed women’s causes, speaking at public events on behalf of different women’s organisations and campaigns. Active in Women’s Liberal Federation (WLF) becoming President of the Westminster WLF and later vice-president of the Scottish Women’s Liberal Federation. 1892 Elected President of the Welsh Union of Women’s Liberal Associations. Member of the executive committee of the Central National Society for Women’s Suffrage lecturing and campaigning for suffrage. Lectured on employment rights and supported trade unions. Lectured for the National Temperance Society. 1890 Opened the Aberdâr Hall of Residence for women at Aberystwyth University College. 1891 Published An Appeal to Women encouraging women to become active in public service.   1892 Co-founder, with Mrs Massingberd, of the Pioneer Club. Member of the Somerville Club and other women’s rights organisations. 1897 Founder of the Women’s Institute at Grosvenor Crescent.
‘Women students at UCL in the early 1880s’ Charlotte Mitchell Philipps [née Gerstenberg], Leonora [known as Mrs Wynford Philipps], Lady St Davids (1862–1915), political activist and campaigner for women’s rights | Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (oxforddnb.com)

Lilian Vereker Hamilton née Swainson	Sister of Mary Swainson)	1865 -24 May 1939
Sculptor, medallist. See sculptors at the Slade; Philip Attwood: Sculptors at the Slade  – Pascal Theatre Company (pascal-theatre.com)
1881-1886 Studied at the Slade School of Art.
Exhibited regularly at the Royal Academy. Made struck medals for the Society of Miniature Rifle Clubs Exhibited at the International Society of Sculptors, Painters and Gravers.
‘Mrs Lilian Vereker Hamilton’, Mapping the Practice and Profession of Sculpture in Britain and Ireland 1851-1951, University of Glasgow History of Art and HATII, online database 2011 [https://sculpture.gla.ac.uk/view/person.php?id=msib2_1204844969, accessed 16 Nov 2023] 1986_BNJ_56_10.pdf (britnumsoc.org) Mrs Lilian Vereker Hamilton – Mapping the Practice and Profession of Sculpture in Britain and Ireland 1851-1951 (gla.ac.uk)

M

Maria Zambaco (born Marie Terpsithea Cassavetti)		29 April 1843 – 14 July 1914
Sculptor, medallist.
Studied and with Burne Jones. then with Alphonese Legros, at the Slade. Studied in Paris under Auguste Rodin.   Issued at ticket for the British Museum Reading Room 10 February 1871.
1880s worked as a sculptor sharing a studio with Louise Jopling. 1887 Exhibited at the Royal Academy 1889 Exhibited at the Arts and Crafts Exhibition Society Exhibited at the Paris Exposition Universelle.
Issues: Attention has often been paid to her as a model rather than a passionate artist herself. Much of  her work is unaccounted for. Marriage to Dr Zambaco unhappy and she returned from Paris with her children to live with her mother in London. Threatened to commit suicide in 1869, as Burne-Jones would not leave his wife for her. Public scandal in 1870 when Burne-Jones’ watercolour clearly displayed Maria’s naked figure, which he ultimately removed from exhibition.
Female Networks include: The Pre-Raphaelite circle, Slade contemporaries, cousins Aglaia Coronio, and Marie Spartali Stillman, Louise Jopling.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maria_Zambaco http://preraphaelitesisterhood.com/maria-zambaco/ https://eafitzsimons.wordpress.com/2016/06/17/maria-casavetti-zambaco-1843-1914/ https://hoaportal.york.ac.uk/hoaportal/threegracesZambaco.jsp https://www.sothebys.com/en/articles/marie-maria-and-the-dramatic-story-behind-burne-joness-venus-epithalamia https://www.oxforddnb.com/display/10.1093/odnb/9780198614128.001.0001/odnb-9780198614128-e-64756?rskey=aMct2t&result=1

Mary Swainson	(sister of Lilian Vereker Hamilton)	16 September 1862 – 9 September 1932.
Sculptor, medallist, teacher.
Studied at the Slade 1881-1885.
Exhibited at the Royal Academy including a bust of Bessie Rayner Parkes Belloc. 1890-1910 Taught at Cheltenham Ladies College.
During WW1 started a hospital in Brittany which provided electric massage.
Mary Swainson’, Mapping the Practice and Profession of Sculpture in Britain and Ireland 1851-1951, University of Glasgow History of Art and HATII, online database 2011 [https://sculpture.gla.ac.uk/view/person.php?id=msib4_1239723214, accessed 16 Nov 2023] 1986_BNJ_56_10.pdf (britnumsoc.org)

Moina Mathers	(born Bergson; also known as Mina or Minna)	28 February 1865 – 25 July 1928
Artist and occultist.
1880 Attended the Slade School of Art at 15 years old. 1883 Awarded a scholarship from the Slade. Received 4 certificates of merit for drawing. 1888 Joined the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn as its first initiate, which had been founded by her husband Samuel Liddell MacGregor Mathers.
Other Bloomsbury connection: Studied and drew ancient Egyptian art at the British Museum.
Female networks include: Annie Horniman, Beatrice Offor.
(PDF) Moina Bergson Mathers | World Religions and Spirituality Project WRSP – Academia.edu https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moina_Mathers https://engelsbergideas.com/portraits/moina-mathers-high-priestess-of-the-belle-epoque/ https://www.theoldcraft.com/2018/02/27/moina-mathers-high-priestess-mother-golden-dawn/

N

Nelia Cornelia Casella	(Louisa known as Nelia) Ella Casella & Nelia Casella (known as The Casella Sisters)	23 July 1859 – 29 April 1950
Sculptor, wax modeler, medallist, illustrator, enamellist.
Mid 1880s Studied at the Slade.
Took on both solo commissions and worked with her sister. 1895 Commissioned, with her sister, by the Royal Astronomical Society to create the medal for the Jackson-Gwilt Prize in Astronomy. Showed at the Arts and Crafts Exhibition Society at Leeds City Art Gallery, Royal Academy of Arts and Walker Art Gallery.
Other Bloomsbury connection: British Museum where she studied medals in their collection.
Female networks: Slade students, a literary and theatrical circle that included Ellen Terry.
Miss Nelia Casella’, Mapping the Practice and Profession of Sculpture in Britain and Ireland 1851-1951, University of Glasgow History of Art and HATII, online database 2011 [https://sculpture.gla.ac.uk/view/person.php?id=msib5_1208550248, accessed 16 Nov 2023] 1986_BNJ_56_10.pdf (britnumsoc.org) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Casella_Sisters https://www.fellows.co.uk/blog/antiques/2023/02/24/ella-and-nelia-casella/