Joanna Mary Boyce (7 December 1831 – 15 July 1861) was a British painter associated with the

Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood The Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood (PRB), later known as the Pre-Raphaelites, was a group of English painters, poets, and art critics, founded in 1848 by William Holman Hunt, John Everett Millais, Dante Gabriel Rossetti, William Michael Rossett ...

. She is also known by her married name as Mrs. H.T. Wells, or as Joanna Mary Wells. She produced multiple works with historical themes (such as ''Elgiva'', which received critical acclaim when it was exhibited in 1855), as well as portraits and sketches, and authored art criticism responding to her contemporaries. She was the sister of

Pre-Raphaelite The Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood (PRB), later known as the Pre-Raphaelites, was a group of English painters, poets, and art critics, founded in 1848 by William Holman Hunt, John Everett Millais, Dante Gabriel Rossetti, William Michael Rossetti, ...

watercolour Watercolor (American English) or watercolour ( Commonwealth English; see spelling differences), also ''aquarelle'' (; from Italian diminutive of Latin 'water'), is a painting method"Watercolor may be as old as art itself, going back to the ...

ist

George Price Boyce George Price Boyce (24 September 1826 – 9 February 1897) was a British watercolour painter of landscapes and vernacular architecture in the Pre-Raphaelite style. He was a patron and friend of Dante Gabriel Rossetti. Life Boyce was born in ...

Life

Early life and education

Joanna Mary Boyce, born in

Maida Hill Maida Vale ( ) is an affluent residential district in North West London, England, north of Paddington, southwest of St John's Wood and south of Kilburn, on Edgware Road. It is part of the City of Westminster and is northwest of Charing Cro ...

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 ...

was the daughter of George Boyce, a former wine-merchant who had found prosperity as a

pawnbroker A pawnbroker is an individual that offers secured loans to people, with items of personal property used as Collateral (finance), collateral. A pawnbrokering business is called a pawnshop, and while many items can be pawned, pawnshops typic ...

, and his wife Anne. Support from her father and her older brother George Price Boyce helped Joanna Mary Boyce achieve an early and rigorous education in the visual arts. She began a formal study of drawing by the age of eleven with Charles John Mayle Whichelo, and filled multiple sketchbooks as a young teenager. At the age of eighteen she entered Cary's art academy, and afterwards worked under

James Mathews Leigh James Mathews Leigh (1808 – 20 April 1860) was an English art educator, painter, writer, dramatist and critic. He is best known as the founder of a popular private art school in London known as "Leigh's Academy", which eventually became ...

, at his school in Newman Street, London. In 1855, she took an extended trip to

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...

, where she studied in

Thomas Couture Thomas Couture (; 21 December 1815 – 30 March 1879) was a French history painter and teacher. He taught many notable contemporary figures of the art world, such as Édouard Manet, Henri Fantin-Latour, John La Farge, Pierre Puvis de Chava ...

atelier An atelier () is the private workshop or studio of a professional artist in the fine or decorative arts or an architect, where a principal master and a number of assistants, students, and apprentices can work together producing fine art or vi ...

Career

Boyce first exhibited her artwork publicly in 1855 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 ...

. Though Boyce exhibited two pieces, it was her painting ''Elgiva'' that won Boyce the admiration of such critics as

John Ruskin John Ruskin (8 February 1819 20 January 1900) was an English polymath a writer, lecturer, art historian, art critic, draughtsman and philanthropist of the Victorian era. He wrote on subjects as varied as art, architecture, Critique of politic ...

and

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 William Hogarth, Hogarthian version of the Pre-Raphaelite style. Arguably, his mos ...

. In it, Boyce depicted model Lizzie Ridley as a tragic heroine from Anglo-Saxon historical legend, possibly following the precedent of Pre-Raphaelite painter

John Everett Millais Sir John Everett Millais, 1st Baronet ( , ; 8 June 1829 – 13 August 1896) was an English painter and illustrator who was one of the founders of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood. He was a child prodigy who, aged eleven, became the youngest s ...

who had depicted Elgiva eight years prior. Following the exhibition,

Ruskin Ruskin may refer to: People and fictional characters * Ruskin (surname), a list of people and fictional characters * Ruskin (given name), a list of people Places United States * Ruskin, Florida, a census-designated place * Ruskin, Georgia, an uni ...

praised Boyce's painting:

The dignity of all the treatment—the beautiful imagination of faint but pure colour, place this picture, to my mind, among, those of the very highest power and promise. Complete achievement there is not in it as yet ... but if this artist, looking always to Nature and her own thoughts for the thing to be expressed, will strive to express them, with some memory of the great Venetians in her treatment of each separate hue, it seems to me that she might entertain the hope of taking place in the very first rank of painters.

Following her first exhibition, Boyce continued to pursue artistic excellence through extensive sketching and international art-viewing expeditions. She spent 1857 in Italy, and in December of that year married miniaturist

Henry Tanworth Wells Henry Tanworth Wells (14 December 1828 – 16 January 1903) was an English miniature and portrait painter. He was a member of the Pre-Raphaelite circle though he painted in the academic style. His most popular painting was ''Victoria Regi ...

(later a Royal Academician) in

Rome Rome (Italian language, Italian and , ) is the capital city and most populated (municipality) of Italy. It is also the administrative centre of the Lazio Regions of Italy, region and of the Metropolitan City of Rome. A special named with 2, ...

. Boyce used her time in Italy to work on paintings such as ''The Boys' Crusade'' and ''La Veneziana'', a portrait of a Venetian lady. In addition to her own artistic practice at this time, Boyce also continued a lifelong practice of seeking out and analyzing the artwork of her contemporaries. Boyce published some of this analysis as art criticism in the ''Saturday Review'', wherein she lauded the "sincerity" and principles of the Pre-Raphaelite art movement, and noted the positive influence of John Ruskin on the English art world. Boyce Joanna Mrs

Final years

Boyce's later works include ''Fanny Eaton'' (formerly known as ''Head of a Mulatto Woman''), a portrait of Jamaican immigrant and popular artists' model

Fanny Eaton Fanny Eaton (23 June 1835 – 4 March 1924) was a Jamaican-born artist's model and domestic worker. She is best known as a model for the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood and their circle in England between 1859 and 1867. Her public debut was in Simeo ...

, now in the collection of the

Yale Center for British Art The Yale Center for British Art at Yale University in central New Haven, Connecticut, houses the largest and most comprehensive collection of British art outside the United Kingdom. The collection of paintings, sculpture, drawings, prints, rare ...

. Boyce died on 15 July 1861, after the birth of her third child. Her last completed painting, ''A Bird of God,'' was left on her easel.

Legacy

At the time of her death, contemporaries remarked on Boyce's talent as an artist:

Dante Gabriel Rossetti Gabriel Charles Dante Rossetti (12 May 1828 – 9 April 1882), generally known as Dante Gabriel Rossetti ( ; ), was an English poet, illustrator, painter, translator, and member of the Rossetti family. He founded the Pre-Raphaelite Brother ...

described her as "a wonderfully gifted woman", and another obituarist called her a genius. Later critics have observed that Boyce’s reputation was somewhat constrained by her early death, but her art has been highlighted in exhibitions up until the present day. One early posthumous exhibition was held in the

Tate Tate is an institution that houses, in a network of four art galleries, the United Kingdom's national collection of British art, and international modern and contemporary art. It is not a government institution, but its main sponsor is the UK ...

in 1935. Select artworks by Boyce, along with portraits by and of other women significant to the Pre-Raphaelite movement, were exhibited in London’s

National Portrait Gallery National Portrait Gallery may refer to: * National Portrait Gallery (Australia), in Canberra * National Portrait Gallery (Sweden), in Mariefred *National Portrait Gallery (United States), in Washington, D.C. *National Portrait Gallery, London ...

in 2019 in an exhibit entitled "Pre-Raphaelite Sisters". Not all of Boyce's artworks survive, as some were destroyed in bombings during

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

. Despite Boyce’s frequently mentioned association with the Pre-Raphaelite movement, commentators have noted that Boyce was not simply an acolyte of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood. The art historian Pamela Gerrish Nunn notes that Boyce drew comparisons to the Venetian old masters from contemporary critics. Writer Simon Poë additionally observes that Boyce's time at Couture's atelier impacted her work with influences from the Classical Academic and Romantic traditions.

Gallery

File:Joanna Boyce Rowena Offering the Wassail Cup to Voltigern 1856.jpg, alt=Half-body portrait of a young woman in medieval dress, holding a cup aloft in front of her, Joanna Mary Boyce, ''Rowena Offering the Wassail Cup to Voltigern'' (photographic reproduction), 1856 File:Boyce Joanna The Departure.jpg, alt=Painting of a woman in medieval dress embracing a small child, while an older child and a man stand behind her., Joanna Mary Boyce, ''The Departure: An Episode of the Child's Crusade 13th Century,'' 1857-1861 File:Boyce joanna sidneywells1855 oc tate.jpg, alt=Head and shoulders portrait of an infant boy wearing a white bib, Joanna Mary Boyce, ''Portrait of Sidney Wells'', 1859 File:Boyce gretchen unfinished oc tate gallery.jpg, alt=Full-body portrait of a young woman with long blonde hair, in medieval dress, Joanna Mary Boyce, ''Gretchen'' (unfinished), 1861 File:Boyce bird of god 1861 0c.jpg, alt=Head and shoulders portrait of a young woman with red hair, a white robe, and white angel's wings, Joanna Mary Boyce, ''A Bird of God'', 1861

References

Sources

*Bradbury, Sue. ''Joanna, George and Henry: A Pre-Raphaelite Tale of Art, Love and Friendship''. London: The Boydell Press, 2012. *Cherry, Deborah. ''Painting Women: Victorian Women Artists''. Routledge, 1993. *Marsh, Jan and Nunn, Pamela G. ''Pre-Raphaelite Women Artists''. Manchester Art Gallery, 1998. *Nunn, Pamela G."Making a Centre on the Margins" in ''Re-Framing the Pre-Raphaelites'', Ellen Harding ed., Scolar Press, 1996: 43-60. *Nunn, Pamela G. "Artist and Model: JMB's Mulatto," ''Journal of Pre-Raphaelite Studies'' 2.2 (Fall 1993): 12-15. Attribution: *

External links

*
J. M. Boyce on ArtnetJoanna Mary Boyce's sketchbooks in the British Museum
{{DEFAULTSORT:Boyce, Joanna Mary 1831 births 1861 deaths 19th-century English painters 19th-century English women painters British genre painters English landscape painters Deaths in childbirth Pre-Raphaelite painters People from Maida Vale Painters from London Female Pre-Raphaelite painters 19th-century British women painters