Ida Margaret Nettleship (24 January 1877 – 14 March 1907) was a British artist who is best known as the first wife of artist

Augustus John Augustus Edwin John (4 January 1878 – 31 October 1961) was a Welsh painter, draughtsman, and etcher. For a time he was considered the most important artist at work in Britain: Virginia Woolf remarked that by 1908 the era of John Singer Sarg ...

Biography

Nettleship was born in

Hampstead Hampstead () is an area in London, England, which lies northwest of Charing Cross, located mainly in the London Borough of Camden, with a small part in the London Borough of Barnet. It borders Highgate and Golders Green to the north, Belsiz ...

, the eldest of the three daughters of animal painter John Trivett Nettleship and his wife Adaline, better known as Ada Nettleship, dressmaker and daughter of otologist James Hinton. At the age of 15, she became a student at the Slade School of Art, where she studied until 1898 under Fred Brown,

Henry Tonks Henry Tonks, Fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons, FRCS (9 April 1862 – 8 January 1937) was a British surgeon and later draughtsman and painter of figure subjects, chiefly interiors, and a Caricature, caricaturist. He became an influentia ...

, and Wilson Steer. Among her fellow students, she befriended

Gwen Salmond Mary Gwendoline Salmond, also known as Gwen Salmond (1877–1958), was a 19th-century British artist. She was the daughter of Major General William Salmond and wife of Sir Matthew Smith. Early life Salmond was the daughter of Major General ...

, Edna Waugh,

Gwen John Gwendolen ''Gwen'' Mary John (22 June 1876 – 18 September 1939) was a Welsh people, Welsh artist who worked in France for most of her career. Her paintings, mainly portraits of anonymous female sitters, are rendered in a range of closely relat ...

, and Bessie and Dorothy Salaman. She became engaged to their brother Clement Salaman but broke it off in 1897 and traveled to Italy. She followed up with a trip to Paris in 1898, where she shared a flat with Gwen John and Gwen Salmond and studied under

James McNeill Whistler James Abbott McNeill Whistler (; July 10, 1834July 17, 1903) was an American painter in oils and watercolor, and printmaker, active during the American Gilded Age and based primarily in the United Kingdom. He eschewed sentimentality and moral a ...

at the

Académie Carmen Académie Carmen, also known as Whistler's School, was a short-lived Parisian art school founded by James McNeill Whistler. It operated from 1898 to 1901. History The school opened in October 1898 in a large house and stable at No. 6 Passage St ...

. Towards the end of her time at the Slade, she met Gwen's brother

, and they married on 24 January 1901. They honeymooned in

Swanage Swanage () is a coastal town and civil parish in the south east of Dorset, England. It is at the eastern end of the Isle of Purbeck and one of its two towns, approximately south of Poole and east of Dorchester, Dorset, Dorchester. In the Unit ...

and initially took a flat in

Fitzroy Street, London Fitzrovia ( ) is a district of central London, England, near the West End of London, West End. Its eastern part is in the London Borough of Camden, and the western in the City of Westminster. It has its roots in the Manor of Tottenham Court Roa ...

, but John was soon appointed a temporary professor at the school of art at University College, Liverpool. They remained in Liverpool for 18 months, and it was there that the first of their five sons, David Anthony Nettleship, was born in January 1902. He later became a musician and postman. A portrait of Ida by John from around 1901, while she was in her first pregnancy, is held by the

National Museum of Wales National may refer to: Common uses * Nation or country ** Nationality – a ''national'' is a person who is subject to a nation, regardless of whether the person has full rights as a citizen Places in the United States * National, Maryland, c ...

. The family moved to London in 1903, where John co-founded Chelsea Art School with

William Orpen Major (United Kingdom), Major Sir William Newenham Montague Orpen, (27 November 1878 – 29 September 1931) was an Irish artist who mainly worked in London. Orpen was a fine draughtsman and a popular, commercially successful painter of portrai ...

. Their second son Caspar John was born in London on 22 March 1903; he became an officer in the Royal Navy, eventually rising to post of First Sea Lord. Later in 1903, Nettleship's life with John was complicated when

Dorelia McNeill Dorelia McNeill (born Dorothy McNeill; 19 December 1881 – 23 July 1969) was best known as a model for the Welsh artists Gwen John and Augustus John, was the common-law wife of the latter, and has been credited for inspiring "his first unequ ...

became John's model and mistress. From 1903 to 1907, the three lived together in a

ménage à trois A () is a domestic arrangement or committed relationship consisting of three people in polyamorous romantic or sexual relations with each other, and often dwelling together. The phrase is a loan from French meaning "household of three". ...

, first at Matching Green in Essex and from 1905 in Paris. Nettleship had three further sons with John in quick succession: Robin (born 1904 in Essex), who became a linguist; Edwin (born 1905 in Paris), who became a boxer and watercolourist; and Henry (born 1907 in Paris), who became a religious philosopher. During this period, Dorelia also had children with John, in 1905 and 1906. Given John's limited income and the growing family, Nettleship eventually gave up painting to take care of the children and the housework. Although she found this wearisome and considered leaving John, she did not live long enough to do so. She died of

puerperal fever The postpartum (or postnatal) period begins after childbirth and is typically considered to last for six to eight weeks. There are three distinct phases of the postnatal period; the acute phase, lasting for six to twelve hours after birth; the ...

in Paris in 1907 after the birth of her fifth son, Henry John (1907–1935). Her mother arranged her cremation at the

Père Lachaise Cemetery Père Lachaise Cemetery (, , formerly , ) is the largest cemetery in Paris, France, at . With more than 3.5 million visitors annually, it is the most visited necropolis in the world. Buried at Père Lachaise are many famous figures in the ...

and took her ashes and three eldest children back to London with her. John remained with Dorelia after Nettleship's death, and they brought up Nettleship's children. Despite the fact that Nettleship was John's wife, housekeeper, and the mother of five of his children, there is not a single mention of Nettleship in ''Chiaroscuro'', John's 1952 memoir. ''The Good Bohemian'', an edition of Nettleship's letters, was published in 2017; it was edited by John's granddaughter Rebecca John and John's biographer

Michael Holroyd Sir Michael de Courcy Fraser Holroyd (born 27 August 1935) is an English biographer. Early life and education Holroyd was born in London, the son of Basil de Courcy Fraser Holroyd (a descendant of Sir George Sowley Holroyd, Justice of the King ...

References

External links

Portrait of Ida Nettleship by Augustus John
c.1901, National Museum of Wales {{DEFAULTSORT:Nettleship, Ida 1877 births 1907 deaths 19th-century English women artists Alumni of the Slade School of Fine Art Académie Carmen alumni Deaths in childbirth Hinton family John family Artists from the London Borough of Camden People from Hampstead

Biography

References

Further reading

External links