Frances Mary Wimperis (1840 – 19 May 1925) was a

New Zealand New Zealand () is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and List of islands of New Zealand, over 600 smaller islands. It is the List of isla ...

artist.

Early life

Wimperis was born in

Chester Chester is a cathedral city in Cheshire, England, on the River Dee, Wales, River Dee, close to the England–Wales border. With a built-up area population of 92,760 in 2021, it is the most populous settlement in the borough of Cheshire West an ...

, England, in 1840. She was the fourth in a family of eight children born to Mary (née Morison) and Edmund Wimperis. Her father was a school drawing teacher and later a manager at a leadworks. Of her siblings,

Edmund Edmund is a masculine given name in the English language. The name is derived from the Old English elements ''ēad'', meaning "prosperity" or "riches", and ''mund'', meaning "protector". Persons named Edmund include: People Kings and nobles *Ed ...

, Susanna and

Ann Anne, alternatively spelled Ann, is a form of the Latin female name Anna. This in turn is a representation of the Hebrew Hannah, which means 'favour' or 'grace'. Related names include Annie and Ana. Anne is sometimes used as a male name in ...

(Jenny) also became artists. She and her sisters were members of the Naturalists Field Club, of which

Charles Kingsley Charles Kingsley (12 June 1819 – 23 January 1875) was a broad church priest of the Church of England, a university professor, social reformer, historian, novelist and poet. He is particularly associated with Christian socialism, the workin ...

, of ''The Water Babies'' fame, was the leader.

Adult life

Wimperis studied art at the

Slade School The UCL Slade School of Fine Art (informally The Slade) is the art school of University College London (UCL) and is based in London, England. It has been ranked as the UK's top art and design educational institution. The school is organised as ...

in London, and exhibited with the

Royal Society of British Artists The Royal Society of British Artists (RBA) is a British art body established in 1823 as the Society of British Artists, as an alternative to the Royal Academy. History The RBA commenced with twenty-seven members, and took until 1876 to reach fi ...

and the

Royal Watercolour Society The Royal Watercolour Society is a British institution of painters working in watercolours. The Society is a centre of excellence for water-based media on paper, which allows for a diverse and interesting range of approaches to the medium of wa ...

. Wimperis emigrated to New Zealand in 1880 with her sister Jenny, to join their married sister Susanna. They joined Susanna's household in Mornington,

Dunedin Dunedin ( ; ) is the second-most populous city in the South Island of New Zealand (after Christchurch), and the principal city of the Otago region. Its name comes from ("fort of Edin"), the Scottish Gaelic name for Edinburgh, the capital of S ...

, and continued to paint and exhibit. Wimperis' work was shown at the Otago Art Society, the New Zealand Industrial Exhibition in Wellington and the South Seas Exhibition in Dunedin. One of her oil paintings won first prize at the South Seas Exhibition. Her work was also included in the

Centennial Exhibition The Centennial International Exhibition, officially the International Exhibition of Arts, Manufactures, and Products of the Soil and Mine, was held in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, from May 10 to November 10, 1876. It was the first official wo ...

in Wellington in 1940. Wimperis also became an art teacher, first in a private school and then at

Otago Girls' High School Otago Girls' High School (OGHS) is a secondary school in Dunedin, Otago, New Zealand. It was opened 6 February 1871, after a long campaign by Learmonth Whyte Dalrymple. It is one of the oldest girls state-run secondary school in the Southern Hem ...

from 1891 to 1906. One of her most notable pupils was Ella Spicer, who began exhibiting when she was just 15 years old.

Legacy

In 2002, the Hocken Library staged an exhibition featuring the work of Wimperis and her two sisters, Susanna and Jenny, and her niece, Susanna's daughter

Eleanor Joachim Mary Eleanor Joachim (1874–1957) was a New Zealand Bookbinding, book-binder in the Arts and Crafts movement, Arts and Crafts tradition. Early life Joachim was born in Littlehampton, Sussex, England, to Susanna Wimperis and George Joachim. The f ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Wimperis, Frances 1840 births 1925 deaths Artists from Chester Artists from Dunedin 19th-century New Zealand artists English emigrants to New Zealand Alumni of the Slade School of Fine Art 19th-century New Zealand women artists Wimperis family