Elizabeth Wemyss Nasmyth (1793–1862) was a Scottish painter and interior designer.

Life

Origins

Elizabeth Wemyss Nasmyth was born on 26 August 1793 in Hill Street, St Andrew's parish, Edinburgh, into the distinguished Nasmyth family of painters and art teachers. Her father

Alexander Nasmyth Alexander Nasmyth (9 September 175810 April 1840) was a Scottish portrait and Landscape art, landscape Painting, painter, a pupil of Allan Ramsay (artist), Allan Ramsay. He also undertook several architectural commissions. Biography Nasmyth ...

and six of her siblings— Jane, Barbara,

Margaret Margaret is a feminine given name, which means "pearl". It is of Latin origin, via Ancient Greek and ultimately from Iranian languages, Old Iranian. It has been an English language, English name since the 11th century, and remained popular thro ...

Anne Anne, alternatively spelled Ann, is a form of the Latin female name Anna (name), Anna. This in turn is a representation of the Hebrew Hannah (given name), Hannah, which means 'favour' or 'grace'. Related names include Annie (given name), Annie a ...

, Charlotte, and

Patrick Patrick may refer to: *Patrick (given name), list of people and fictional characters with this name * Patrick (surname), list of people with this name People *Saint Patrick (c. 385–c. 461), Christian saint * Gilla Pátraic (died 1084), Patrick ...

—were all notable artists.Cooksey 2004.

First marriage

On 25 June 1815 she married the actor

Daniel Terry Daniel Terry (1780?–1829) was an English actor and playwright, known also as a close associate of Sir Walter Scott. Life He was born in Bath, Somerset, Bath in about 1780, and was educated at the Bath grammar school and subsequently at a priv ...

. The marriage may have taken place rather suddenly, as Alexander Nasmyth makes no mention of any engagement in a letter to his children in Edinburgh written only a few weeks before the marriage. Elizabeth was a talented designer and through Daniel Terry's connection with

Sir Walter Scott Sir Walter Scott, 1st Baronet (15 August 1771 – 21 September 1832), was a Scottish novelist, poet and historian. Many of his works remain classics of European literature, European and Scottish literature, notably the novels ''Ivanhoe'' (18 ...

over the building of Abbotsford produced designs for Scott's armoury. The Terrys lived in London at 9 Devonshire Street, Portland Place, where Elizabeth stored unsold paintings and helped her father to organise his affairs. She also ran art classes with her sister

from the house. Letters between Daniel Terry and Scott record Elizabeth's difficulty in having children, although she eventually bore three: Walter Scott Terry (born 1816), Jane Terry (born 1821), and Elizabeth Terry (born 1822). Daniel Terry died after a long illness and financial troubles on 12 June 1829.

Second marriage

Elizabeth remarried to the lexicographer Charles Richardson on 23 May 1835. The marriage was childless. She died at 9 Charlwood Road,

Putney Putney () is an affluent district in southwest London, England, in the London Borough of Wandsworth, southwest of Charing Cross. The area is identified in the London Plan as one of 35 major centres in Greater London. History Putney is an ...

, Surrey, on 10 July 1862 and was interred with her second husband in Putney Lower Common Cemetery. A long epitaph on her tombstone composed by her grief-stricken husband testifies to a long and happy marriage.

Works

Elizabeth continued with her painting throughout her first marriage, sending works to the

British Institution The British Institution (in full, the British Institution for Promoting the Fine Arts in the United Kingdom; founded 1805, disbanded 1867) was a private 19th-century society in London formed to exhibit the works of living and dead artists; it ...

from 1816 to 1829. Her style is perhaps the coldest and least painterly of the Nasmyth sisters; a rare signed example is ''Driving Cattle by a Loch'', now in a private collection. Though identifiable as of the 'Nasmyth school', and competently finished, her work is stylistically less Romantic. This is partly because she often used bright colours, thus distinguishing her work from that of her sisters. Her pictures are typically signed on the stretcher 'Elizabeth Nasmyth'.

References

Citations

Bibliography

* Cooksey, J. C. B. (2004)
"Nasmyth family (per. 1788–1884), painters and art teachers"
In ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography''. Oxford University Press. * Gray, Sara (2009). "Elizabeth Wemyss Nasmyth". I
''The Dictionary of Women Artists''
Cambridge: The Lutterworth Press. * Johnson, P. and Money, E. (1977). ''The Nasmyth Family of Painters''. Leigh-On-Sea: F. Lewis. * Oliver, Valerie Cassel, ed. (2011)
"Nasmyth, Elizabeth Wemyss"
In ''

Benezit Dictionary of Artists The ''Benezit Dictionary of Artists'' (in French, ''Bénézit: Dictionnaire des peintres, sculpteurs, dessinateurs et graveurs'') is an extensive publication of bibliographical information on painters, sculptors, designers and engravers create ...

''. Oxford University Press. * Wainwright, Clive (1989). ''The Romantic Interior: The British Collector at Home 1750–1850''. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press. {{Authority control (arts) 1793 births 1862 deaths 19th-century Scottish women artists Scottish landscape painters Scottish interior designers