Portrait of a Woman Writer

The article considers how women writers and artists in the patriarchal society of turn of the century Dublin connected with, and supported one another, through correspondence, salon culture and female portraiture. Women were prominent both in contemporary political campaigns and in the arts, in which the writer Jane Barlow and the artist Sarah Purser were well-known figures. This article considers their work and careers, focusing on a close correspondence between Barlow and Purser which demonstrates their personal and professional interdependence and traces the emergence of collaborative projects. Their friendship and collaboration are embodied in an oil portrait of Barlow painted by Purser in 1894, in which Barlow sits with an open book and another nearby. It is suggested that this portrait, which brought together two creative women, helped break fresh ground in Ireland, not by simply picturing a writer, but by depicting a new kind of female subject, a woman as intellectual. Disclosure statementNo potential conflict of interest was reported by the author..Notes1 Barlow was awarded the honorary degree of D.Litt. later, in 1904.2 Cusack, The Reading Figure, 59, 112–15.3 Joanna Woodall believes that portraiture has an ambivalent status as art and that ‘there is a dearth of critical history of the subject’: Woodall, Portraiture, xiii.4 West, Portraiture, 12.5 Tscherny, “Likeness in Early Romantic Portraiture”, 193.6 Ibid., 198.7 Davison, “The Musician in Iconography”, 151.8 North, “Portraying Presence: Thomas Carlyle”, 467.9 Soussloff, The Subject in Art, 5.10 Barlow, “Facing the Past and Present”, 220–1.11 Stephen Gwynn (London 1926), quoted in O’Grady, Life and Work, 78.12 Cusack, The Reading Figure, 2, 15, 45, 49. Kathryn Brown’s analysis of women readers in French painting between 1870 and 1890 indicates the ubiquity yet complexity of the theme of women readers in France and how visual representations varied in the context of educational reform and discussion relating to female literacy: Brown, Women Readers in French Painting 1870–1890.13 René Théodore Berthon, Portrait of Lady Morgan (Sydney Owenson), c.1818, oil on canvas, National Gallery of Ireland.14 Berthe Morisot, Reading, 1873, oil on fabric, Cleveland Museum of Art.15 This argument is expanded in Cusack, The Reading Figure. Estella Solomons’s later, undated painting Portrait of a Woman (oil on canvas, The Model, Sligo) shows her friend, the poet and author Kathleen Goodfellow, at her desk. Such portraits may be contrasted, for example, with the thirty photographic portraits of women authors (mainly English) interviewed by Helen Black in 1893 and 1906, which mostly show only the subject’s bust, without any clues as to the women’s work as writers: Black, Notable Women Authors.16 O’Grady, Life and Work, 48.17 Ibid., 15.18 Ibid., 23.19 An index register of payment by students at the School of Art for 1894–1895 lists Sarah Purser, although this is a rare reference and the date seems late in her busy career for returning to study. The relevant page is available at: http://www.nival.ie/collections/special-collections-not-needed/collection/archive/sarah-purser-1/view/item/ (accessed 9 October 2022).20 Turpin, “RHA Schools”, 198.21 O’Grady, Life and Work, 26, 29; Bourke and Edmondson, Irish Artists, 20.22 O’Grady, Life and Work, 26, 28.23 Ibid., 58–59.24 National Gallery of Ireland: Le Petit Déjeuner by Sarah Purser, https://www.nationalgallery.ie/art-and-artists/highlights-collection/le-petit-dejeuner-sarah-purser-1848-1943; O’Grady, Life and Work, 112.25 Sarah Purser’s Berkeley and Dorothy, Children of Sir Robert Sheffield, Bart., of Normanby Park was no. 502, Exhibition of the Royal Academy of Arts 1885, 21.26 Sarah Purser quoted in Lindie Naughton, ‘I Went Through British Aristocracy Like Measles Claimed Irish Artist Sarah Purser’, The Herald, 8 March 1917, 6.27 Co-op Ireland, 9.28 Purser, Jellett, O’ Brien, Purser, 117.29 ‘Famous Irish Woman Artist Dead’, Sunday Independent, 8 August 1943.30 O’Grady, Life and Work, 55.31 Milligan, “Social Smoking”, 370.32 Purser, Jellett, O’Brien, Purser, 117.33 O’Grady, Life and Work, 97.34 ‘Death of Miss Sarah Purser’, Irish Press, August 9 1943.35 Gordon Bowe, Wilhelmina Geddes, 39–40. An Túr Gloine was based on Arts and Crafts principles: Ibid., 45.36 Kickham, Protestant Women Novelists, 16–7.37 Griffith, “Miss Jane Barlow D.Litt.”.38 The full title was: History of a World of Immortals Without a God: Translated from an Unpublished Manuscript in the Library of a Continental University, and his pseudonym was Antares Skorpios: Connolly, ed., Shadow Voices, 462.39 Barlow to Hinkson (16 Sept.), Letters Jane Barlow to Katharine Tynan (Hinkson), Rylands, Box1/19.40 ‘Honorary Degrees for Women’, Irish Times, 9 July 1904, 18.41 Clarke, “Jane Barlow”.42 Ibid.43 Clarke, ‘Jane Barlow’; Barlow would ‘blow the organ’ to keep her father company: Barlow to Purser (envelope postmarked August 26 1895), Letters Jane Barlow to Sarah Purser, NLI MSS 8186 (4).44 Griffith, “Miss Jane Barlow D.Litt.”45 Barlow to Purser, n.d., Letters Jane Barlow to Sarah Purser 1898, NLI MSS 8186 (11).46 Residents of a house 2 in Ballyhoey [sic] (Howth, Dublin), http://www.census.nationalarchives.ie/ (accessed November 15 2019). The 1911 census shows that Jane Barlow lived with her father, her sister, two brothers and five resident servants: Residents of a house 1 in Ballyhoy (Howth, Dublin), ibid.47 Clarke, “Jane Barlow”.48 Tynan, Memories, 291–2.49 Benedict Kiely, ‘Lisconnell on the Bog: Ninety Years Ago’, Irish Times, 20 April 1984, 12.50 Bookman II, 1896, 261.51 Letters of Dante-Gabriel Rossetti to William Allingham 1854–1870, ed. G.B.N. Hill was published in 1897.52 Barlow to Purser, n.d., Letters Jane Barlow to Sarah Purser 1888-1893, NLI MS 8186 (1). ‘Dr Wallace’ refers to Alfred Russel Wallace, evolutionary theorist and advocate of land nationalisation.53 Atkinson, Selected Letters, 5.54 Tynan, Memories, 298.55 Ibid., 295.56 Ibid., 301–2.57 Ibid., 291.58 Standlee, “A World of Difference”, 72–5.59 Tynan, Memories, 293, 298.60 Ibid., 298.61 Ibid., 292.62 Ibid., 293.63 Ibid., 293.64 Ibid., 293.65 Ibid., 299.66 Tynan admitted that ‘[t]here was a period when Jane was less frightened of her world. Miss Purser painted her during those years, and she appeared at literary gatherings’: Tynan, Memories, 299.67 O’Grady, Life and Work, 73.68 ‘Lady Aberdeen in the North. Visit to Inniskeen’, Irish Times, June 12 1894, 5; ‘Lady Aberdeen’s Tour. Visit to Glencolumbkille’, Irish Times, June 15 1894, 5. The Countess of Aberdeen was briefly Vicereine of Ireland in 1886, then 1906-1915.69 Helland, “A Delightful Change of Fashion”, 35–7, 45.70 See Helland, “A Delightful Change of Fashion”, 35, 36 fig. 1.71 Walker, “Portrait of the Artist”, 106.72 Clarke, “Hinkson (née Tynan)”.73 Macken, “W. B. Yeats”, 139.74 Purser, Jellett, O’ Brien, Purser, 118. The 1911 Census shows Mespil House occupied by Purser, her brother John as Head of Household, both given as ‘Irish Church’, a female cook and two female servants, all Roman Catholic: ‘Genealogy’: National Archives of Ireland.75 O’ Grady, Life and Work, 107; Purser, Jellett, O’ Brien, Purser, 187.76 Brian Fallon, ‘A painter and a fighter’, Irish Times, December 17 1996; Arnold, Jack Yeats, 296.77 Brian Inglis (1962) quoted in ‘Taoiseach unveils plaque’, Irish Times, July 21 1976, 11.78 Purser, Jellett, O’ Brien, Purser, 187.79 Undated draft letters from Sarah Purser addressed to ‘Willie’, and to ‘Mr Yeats’ (almost certainly W. B. Yeats): Sarah Purser Papers 1848-1943: NLI MS 10,202/2.80 Barlow and Purser each had other longstanding artistic and intellectual women friends. Purser established a life-long friendship with the Swiss artist Louise Breslau whom she had met in Paris and with whom she corresponded. She also corresponded with Wilhelmina Geddes for twenty-five years: Gordon Bowe, Wilhelmina Geddes, 5.81 M. R. Hill, Archival Strategies (1993), quoted in Poustie, ‘Re-Theorising Letters’, 5.82 Letters Jane Barlow to Katharine Tynan (Hinkson). Some of these letters are severely damaged and unreadable.83 Purser’s biographer, John O’Grady, confirms my own searches as he does not know of any cache of Purser’s letters: email message to author November 5 2021.84 Barlow to Purser, Letters Jane Barlow to Sarah Purser 1895, NLI MSS 8186 (4).85 Ibid., NLI MSS 8186 (1).86 Barlow to Purser, Letters Jane Barlow to Sarah Purser 1897, NLI MSS 8186 (7).87 Ibid., NLI MSS 8186 (9).88 Barlow to Purser, n.d., Letters Jane Barlow to Sarah Purser 1888-1893, NLI MS 8186 (1).89 Ibid., NLI MSS 8186 (2).90 Barlow to Purser (n.d., envelope postmarked Jan. 14 1897), Letters Jane Barlow to Sarah Purser 1897, NLI MSS 8186 (7).91 Barlow to Purser, Letters Jane Barlow to Sarah Purser 1894, NLI MSS 8186 (2).92 Ibid.93 Barlow to Purser, Letters Jane Barlow to Sarah Purser 1888-1893, NLI MSS 8186 (1).94 Logan Sisley, in conversation with the author, January 29 2020.95 Barlow to Purser, Letters Jane Barlow to Sarah Purser 1888-1893, NLI MSS 8186 (1). The contents of this letter suggest it might have been written in 1894, despite its earlier filing.96 Barlow to Purser, Letters Jane Barlow to Sarah Purser 1895, NLI MSS 8186 (3).97 Barlow to Purser, 13 July, Letters Jane Barlow to Sarah Purser 1894, NLI MSS 8186 (2).98 Barlow to Purser, Letters Jane Barlow to Sarah Purser 1894, NLI MSS 8186 (2).99 Barlow to Purser, Letters Jane Barlow to Sarah Purser 1898, NLI MSS 8186 (10).100 Barlow to Purser (n.d., envelope postmarked 11? February, 1898), Letters Jane Barlow to Sarah Purser 1898, NLI MS 8186 (10).101 Barlow to Purser (27 November 1896), Letters Jane Barlow to Sarah Purser, NLI MSS 8186 (6).102 O’Grady, Life and Work, 234, cat. no. 325. Mr Lee’s portrait, commissioned by his wife, was completed the following year: O’Grady, Life and Work, 235, cat. no. 332.103 Barlow to Purser (November 27 1896), Letters Jane Barlow to Sarah Purser, NLI MSS 8186 (6).104 Barlow to Hinkson (March 15 1894), Letters Jane Barlow to Katharine Tynan (Hinkson), Rylands, Box1/19. Barlow found A Cluster of Nuts ‘a charming work from beginning to end’: ibid.105 Ibid., 66.106 ‘Death of Miss Sarah Purser’, Irish Press, August 9 1943.107 Barlow to Purser, Letters Jane Barlow to Sarah Purser 1895, NLI MSS 8186 (3).108 Barlow to Purser, Letters Jane Barlow to Sarah Purser 1897, NLI MSS 8186 (7).109 Ibid.110 Barlow to Purser, Letters Jane Barlow to Sarah Purser 1898, NLI MSS 8186 (10).111 See Cusack, The Reading Figure, chapters 1, 5.112 Clarke, “Jane Barlow”.113 Barlow, Irish Idylls, 1–2.114 Ibid., 158.115 Hansson, “Our Village”, 64, 67–8.116 Barlow, Irish Idylls: preface, Dublin, May 1893 (original emphasis).117 Barlow, Irish Idylls, 135.118 Tynan, Memories, 295.119 ‘Obituary’, Irish Book Lover (June -July 1917): 141–2.120 Corporaal, “Relocating Regionalism”, 155, 157.121 Lisconnel features in Irish Idylls and Glenore in her novel Kerrigan’s Quality.122 Barlow, Irish Idylls: preface, Dublin, May 1893.123 Barlow saw emigration to London as depleting the Dublin literary scene, and all saleable material being produced by London publishers: ‘Literary Dublin’, 80.124 Cusack, The Reading Figure, 123.125 Anon., ‘Notes on New Books’, Irish Monthly, March 1896, quoted in Standlee, ‘World of Difference’, 79. Tynan’s A Cluster of Nuts was subtitled ‘Sketches among my own people’.126 Review: Bog-Land Studies (1892), Irish Idylls (1892) by Jane Barlow, The Nation 56, no. 1444, 166.127 Saturday Review quoted in ‘Hodder & Stoughton’s List’, Irish Times, December 20 1893, 2.128 Sarah Henrietta Purser, An Irish Idyll, oil on canvas, 1894, 76.5 × 64.7 cm, National Museums NI.129 Crampton Walker, Irish Life and Landscape, 100.130 W. B. Yeats quoted in Clarke, ‘Jane Barlow’.131 'Jane Barlow’, Cabinet of Irish Literature, 107.132 M. R., ‘Cabinet of Irish Literature’, 339. The date usually cited for the revised edition is 1905. However, this review was published in 1903.133 ‘Jane Barlow. From a Photograph by LaFayette’, Cabinet of Irish Literature IV, plate between 106 and 107; ‘The Lafayette Negative Archive: A Brief History of the Lafayette Studio’, Lafayette.org.uk/lafhist.html134 Barlow also published a story in the ‘Grand Christmas Extra Number’ from the Weekly Irish Times, December 10 1896, claimed as ‘The Finest Christmas Number published at the price’, perhaps in rivalry to A Celtic Christmas: Irish Times, January 1 1897, 7.135 ‘A Celtic Christmas’, All Ireland Review (1900), 3.136 O’Grady, Life and Work, 235.137 Lane, ‘Cottages and Farmers’ Houses’, 167, 173–4, 178.138 The cover for A Celtic Christmas (1898) was designed by Æ. The covers in 1899, 1901 and 1902 are signed by C. F. Gore, the same design produced in different colours.139 ‘A Celtic Christmas’, Irish Times, December 18 1897, 8.140 Ibid.141 Ibid.142 ‘Jane Barlow’, A Celtic Christmas (1897), 12.143 Barlow, ‘Cocky’, A Celtic Christmas (1897): 18–20.144 A Celtic Christmas (1897), 19.145 O’Grady, Life and Work, 235–6.146 Barlow, ‘Cocky’s Conscience’, A Celtic Christmas (1899), 6–8.147 Barlow, ‘Their New Umbrellas’, A Celtic Christmas (1902), 1–3.148 Barlow to Purser (29 November 1897), Letters Jane Barlow to Sarah Purser, NLI MSS 8186 (9). T.P. Gill was editor of the Irish Homestead, 1895–7, and Secretary to the Dept. of Agriculture and Technical Instruction.149 Barlow to Purser (Oct. 1898), Letters Jane Barlow to Sarah Purser, NLI MSS 8186 (10).150 O’Grady, Life and Work, 241.151 Barlow to Purser, Letters Jane Barlow to Sarah Purser 1898, NLI MS 8186 (10). In an early letter, Barlow comments on the Irish Homestead’s insensitive use of a picture by Purser: Barlow to Purser (n.d.), Letters Jane Barlow to Sarah Purser 1888-1893, NLI MS 8186 (1).152 Barlow to Purser, Letters Jane Barlow to Sarah Purser 1898, NLI MS 8186 (10).153 Barlow to Purser, Letters Jane Barlow to Sarah Purser 1894, NLI MS 8186 (2).154 Barlow had thoughts on portraiture, ‘I have a theory that in painting a face all the mobile parts should be under-stated, because the immobility in the picture is in itself a sort of accentuation’: Barlow to Purser (n.d., env. postmarked 11? February 1898), Letters Jane Barlow to Sarah Purser 1898, NLI MS 8186 (10).155 Barlow to Purser, Letters Jane Barlow to Sarah Purser 1897, NLI MSS 8186 (7).156 Barlow to Purser (June/July 1897), Letters Jane Barlow to Sarah Purser, NLI MSS 8186 (8).157 Barlow to Purser (August 14 1897), Letters Jane Barlow to Sarah Purser, NLI MSS 8186 (8). The first story was titled ‘The Keys to the Chest’.158 John B. Yeats to Sarah Purser, 7 June 1883, quoted in O’Grady, Life and Work, 44.159 For further discussion of this and more examples, see Cusack, The Reading Figure. A subsequent image of Jane Barlow seated with a book was published in The Month (March 1897), a print of which is held in The New York Public Library Digital Collections, ID 1104953.160 Before the twentieth century portraits tended to avoid marked expressiveness, such as laughing, or even smiling, in favour of ‘dignified repose or concentration’: West, Portraiture, 34.161 K. Barlow, St Valerie (Bray), to Purser (13 March), Letters to Sarah Purser from Katherine Barlow: Sarah Purser Papers 1848-1943, NLI MS 10,201/2.162 K. Barlow, St Valerie (Bray), to Purser (17 April), Ibid.163 Barlow later presented her portrait to the Hugh Lane City Gallery, Dublin. When the gallery opened in its new premises at Charlemont House on 19 June 1933, this portrait was on display, where it still hangs

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