Gioconda Mary Hulton (1887-1940)
Lisa Stillman (fl.1875 - London 1946)
Category
Art / Drawings and watercolours
Date
1891
Materials
Pastel on paper
Measurements
400 mm (H); 360 mm (W); 620 mm (H); 575 mm (W)
Order this imageCollection
Wightwick Manor, West Midlands
NT 1287913
Summary
Pastel drawing. Subject: Gioconda Mary Hulton (1887-1940). Head and shoulder of a little girl, wearing a string of beads.
Full description
Lisa Stillman (Florence 1875- London 1946). Eliza Ramona Stillman, always known as Lisa, was the eldest daughter of William Stillman (1828-1901) who was an American artist, Consul to Rome and Athens and Times correspondent to Italy and Greece, and his first wife Laura Mack (1839-1869). In 1871 her father, following the suicide of her mother, married the well-connected Pre-Raphaelite artist Marie Spartali (1844-1927). Stillman followed her Stepmother into the artistic world enrolling at the Slade School of Art in 1885, with further study at the Académie Julian in Paris and in 1886 whilst staying with her parents in Rome, at the French Académie under Ernest Herbert (1817-1908). Through Herbert she was introduced to Giovanni Costa (1826-1903), leader of the Etruscans, an Anglo- Italian group of landscape painters. In 1888 she exhibited Sabina, a portrait of Richmond Richie’s daughter Hester at the New Gallery. She was encouraged by GF Watts (1817-1904) to produce chalk portraits similar to this one of Gioconda Hulton, as they were considered highly commercial, although there is no evidence, she sold any works. In the 1890’s and 1900’s Stillman became close friends with the then Miss Stephens, Virginia Wolfe (1882-1941) and Vanessa Bell (1879-1961), through family friendships and connections with their mother, Pre-Raphaelite muse, Julia Stephens. Stillman is believed to be at least the partial inspiration for the character Lily Briscoe[i] in Woolfe’s semi- autobiographical novel To the Lighthouse. London. Hogarth. 1927. In 1893 Stillman stayed with the Stephens family in St Ives at Talland house which is believed to be the basis for the fictional summer home in To the Lighthouse of the Ramsey family. Here she was engaged on portraits of Julia Stephens and her daughter Stella Duckworth, half- sister of Woolfe and Bell. Effectively marking the end of her artistic career in 1911, Stillman became the carer for her three young nephews following the death of her half-sister, the sculptor, Euphemia (Effie) Ritchie nee Stillman (1872-1911). Gioconda Mary Hulton (1887-1949), was the daughter of William Stokes Hulton (1852-1921), the artist, the son of a parson and Costanza Mazini daughter of Vicenzo Mazini (d.1869) (a friend, but not a relative, of the Italian patriot, Mazzini), and Linda White the daughter of James White, a textile merchant and Liberal MP for Brighton. In around 1870 William Hulton and Constanza Mazini moved to Venice and bought the two upper floors of the Palazzo Donà in Venice. The Palazzo was situated in the Campo Santi Giovanni e Paolo the most spectacular square in Venice after San Marco. Gioconda was born in Venice in 1887 and her sister Edith Teresa Hulton, later Lady Berwick (1890-1972) was born in Asolo where their parents had gone to escape the summer heat of Venice and join the small English colony encamped there which included the widowed Robert Browning. Walter Sickert was also a great friend of the Hultons and greatly admired Gioconda’s drawings and assisted her with painting lessons. During the World War One, Gioconda, found it difficult to settle into war work, trying her hand at Nursing among other things. Eventually she wanted to join her sister Teresa working with refugees in London but their mother, Costanza, felt that it might be ‘too much responsibility. She is so dependant and has so little initiative, and if she only has you to lean upon, you may find her too heavy.‘ During the Second World War, Gioconda helped at a refugee canteen at Aix-les-Bains and her obituary praises the support that she gave to people in need. Tragically, Gioconda, who intended on coming to live with her sister during the Second World War, died in 1940 when the bus that she was travelling in collided with a heavy goods vehicle. Gioconda was travelling from Cannes to Nice to arrange for repatriation before travelling to Britain to live with Lord and Lady Berwick at Attingham Park near Shrewsbury.[ii] [i] Lisa Lily Stillman Briscoe. Jan Marsh. 2020 [ii] https://attinghamww1stories.wordpress.com/tag/costanza-hulton/
Provenance
Lady Berwick;Lady Mander, Came to Wightwick from Attingham Park January 1973.
Makers and roles
Lisa Stillman (fl.1875 - London 1946), artist