Susan Isabel Dacre (1844–1933), known as Isabel Dacre, was an English artist of the

Victorian era In the history of the United Kingdom and the British Empire, the Victorian era was the period of Queen Victoria's reign, from 20 June 1837 until her death on 22 January 1901. The era followed the Georgian period and preceded the Edwardia ...

Biography

She was born in Leamington, Warwickshire, and was educated at a convent school in

Salford Salford () is a city and the largest settlement in the City of Salford metropolitan borough in Greater Manchester, England. In 2011, Salford had a population of 103,886. It is also the second and only other city in the metropolitan county afte ...

. For the decade of 1858–68 she lived in Paris, first attending school and later working as a governess. After a winter in Italy (1869), she returned to Paris, and was present during the Franco-Prussian War and the

Paris Commune The Paris Commune (french: Commune de Paris, ) was a revolutionary government that seized power in Paris, the capital of France, from 18 March to 28 May 1871. During the Franco-Prussian War of 1870–71, the French National Guard had defended ...

. She returned to England in 1871 and began studying art at the

Manchester School of Art Manchester School of Art in Manchester, England, was established in 1838 as the Manchester School of Design. It is the second oldest art school in the United Kingdom after the Royal College of Art which was founded the year before. It is now par ...

, where she won the Queen's Prize in 1875. She began a lifelong friendship with fellow artist Annie Swynnerton; the two women pursued their art studies in Rome and Paris between 1874 and 1880. Around 1872,

Lord Leighton Frederic Leighton, 1st Baron Leighton, (3 December 1830 – 25 January 1896), known as Sir Frederic Leighton between 1878 and 1896, was a British painter, draughtsman, and sculptor. His works depicted historical, biblical, and classical subje ...

dictated notes and observations on his methods of painting and composing his pictures to Isabel Dacre, during a stay on the island of Capri.

Portraits and the Académie Julian

From 1877–80 she was in Paris at the Académie Julian with a fellow - pupil

Marie Bashkirtseff Marie Bashkirtseff (born Mariya Konstantinovna Bashkirtseva, russian: Мария Константиновна Башки́рцева; 1858–1884) was a Ukrainian artist from the Russian Empire who worked in Paris, France. She died aged 25. Li ...

and bracketed with her as first in the concourse mentioned in the famous diary. Dacre was associated with Julian's atelier on two occasions: 1878–79 when she completed a striking black and white chalk drawing, ''Portrait of a Young Girl in a Satin Cap,'' ca. 1879, which is owned by the Andre Del Debbio Collection, Paris. Later she accomplished several works that gained her entry to the Paris Salon. For example, her Salon entry in 1881 was a portrait: ''Portrait of Mme. F.W. '' (no 579.)

Manchester Art Gallery Manchester Art Gallery, formerly Manchester City Art Gallery, is a publicly owned art museum on Mosley Street in Manchester city centre. The main gallery premises were built for a learned society in 1823 and today its collection occupies three ...

own a poignant oil painting ''Italian Women In Church.'' Throughout her career her portraits were admired in Italy, England and Paris. After living in London for a time she returned to Manchester in 1883 and shared a studio in 10 King Street with the artist Mary Florence Monkhouse. After much campaigning by both Dacre and Monkhouse in 1897 Dacre was made a member of the council of the

Manchester Academy of Fine Arts The Manchester Academy of Fine Arts (''MAFA'') was founded in 1859 by artists eager to promote art and education. It was originally based in the building on Mosley Street which is now Manchester Art Gallery where annual exhibitions and classes ...

and Monkhouse was appointed auditor. At the

Royal Jubilee Exhibition, Manchester 1887 The Royal Jubilee Exhibition of 1887 was held in Old Trafford, Manchester, England, to celebrate the Golden Jubilee of Queen Victoria's accession. It was opened by Princess Alexandra, the Princess of Wales (wife of the Prince of Wales, later Edwa ...

she had her work on display, and assisted

Ford Madox Brown Ford Madox Brown (16 April 1821 – 6 October 1893) was a British painter of moral and historical subjects, notable for his distinctively graphic and often Hogarthian version of the Pre-Raphaelite style. Arguably, his most notable painti ...

with the decoration of the exhibition's dome.

Women's suffrage campaigner

Dacre was a noted

Women's suffrage Women's suffrage is the right of women to vote in elections. Beginning in the start of the 18th century, some people sought to change voting laws to allow women to vote. Liberal political parties would go on to grant women the right to vot ...

campaigner. With Annie Swynnerton she founded the Manchester Society of Women Artists in 1876; Dacre also served as president of the organization. For a decade (1885–95), Dacre was a member of the executive committee of the Manchester National Society for Women's Suffrage. Dacre's portrait of

Lydia Becker Lydia Ernestine Becker (24 February 1827 – 18 July 1890) was a leader in the early British suffrage movement, as well as an amateur scientist with interests in biology and astronomy. She established Manchester as a centre for the suffrage mo ...

is one of her best-known works.Carol David, "Investitures of Power: Portraits of Professional Women," ''Technical Communication Quarterly'', Vol. 10 No. 1 (January 2001), pp. 5-29.

References

Bibliography

Susan W Thomson, ''Manchester’s Victorian Art Scene And Its Unrecognised Artists,'' Manchester Art Press, 2007.

External links

*
Susan Isabel Dacre page at AnnieLouisaSwynnerton.com
Web site showing all known works. {{DEFAULTSORT:Dacre, Susan 1844 births 1933 deaths 19th-century English women artists 19th-century English painters 20th-century English women artists 20th-century English painters Académie Julian alumni English portrait painters English suffragists English women painters People from Leamington Spa