Emily Farmer (25 July 1826,

London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...

- 8 May 1905,

Portchester Portchester is a village in the borough of Fareham in Hampshire, England. It is northwest of Portsmouth and around 18 miles east of Southampton on the A27 road. Its population according to the 2011 United Kingdom census was 17,789. Name Portc ...

Hampshire Hampshire (, ; abbreviated to Hants.) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South East England. It is bordered by Berkshire to the north, Surrey and West Sussex to the east, the Isle of Wight across the Solent to the south, ...

) was an English watercolour painter.

Life

She was one of three children of John Biker Farmer, who worked for the

East India Company The East India Company (EIC) was an English, and later British, joint-stock company that was founded in 1600 and dissolved in 1874. It was formed to Indian Ocean trade, trade in the Indian Ocean region, initially with the East Indies (South A ...

, and his wife Frances Ann (née Frost). She was home-educated and instructed in art by her brother Alexander Farmer, a genre painter.

Art

Farmer initially painted miniatures, exhibiting two at the

Royal Academy The Royal Academy of Arts (RA) is an art institution based in Burlington House in Piccadilly London, England. Founded in 1768, it has a unique position as an independent, privately funded institution led by eminent artists and architects. Its ...

in 1847 and 1849, but from 1850 specialised in genre paintings, many of children in rustic surroundings. ''Kitty's Breakfast'' (1883), a picture of a girl in a cottage kitchen pouring a saucer of milk for a kitten, is typical of her style. This, along with ''In doubt'' (1881), is held at the

Victoria and Albert Museum The Victoria and Albert Museum (abbreviated V&A) in London is the world's largest museum of applied arts, decorative arts and design, housing a permanent collection of over 2.8 million objects. It was founded in 1852 and named after Queen ...

.In doubt, Museum no. D.395-1905
V&A collections online Other well-known works include ''Deceiving Granny'' (1860), ''The Primrose Seller'' (1867), ''The ABC Class'' (1863), ''The Undecided Purchaser'' (1864), and ''The Listener'' (1872). In 1854 she was elected a member of the New Society of Painters in Water Colours to whose exhibitions she sent ninety-six paintings over a fifty-year period. She also showed works at the Liverpool Academy and the Royal Scottish Society of Painters in Watercolour. Over this period she lived at Portchester House, Hospital Lane, Portchester, Hampshire, where she died in 1905; she is buried nearby in St Mary's Churchyard within

Portchester Castle Portchester Castle is a medieval fortress that was developed within the walls of the Roman Saxon Shore fort of Portus Adurni at Portchester, to the east of Fareham in Hampshire. The keep was probably built in the late 11th century as a bar ...

.A commemorational plaque is situated beside her former residence.

Notes

References

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Farmer, Emily 1826 births 1905 deaths People from Portchester English watercolourists English genre painters 19th-century English painters English women watercolourists 19th-century English women painters