Video from Douglas Haggo
"Regina Haggo explains the story of Elaine, focusing on its treatment by Sophie Anderson, an English Victorian artist. This video is part of Taking the Mystery out of Art History, a series introducing significant styles, movements, subjects and artistic works. Anderson’s painting belongs to the Walker Art Gallery in Liverpool, England. It was the first painting by a woman acquired by the gallery." from video introduction
Sophie Gengembre Anderson (1823-1003) was a French-born British artist who specialised in genre painting of children and women, typically in rural settings. She began her career as a lithographer and painter of portraits, collaborating with Walter Anderson on portraits of American Episcopal bishops. Her work, Elaine, was the first public collection purchase of a woman artist. Her painting No Walk Today was purchased for more than £1 million.
Sophie was born in Paris, the daughter of Charles Antoine Colomb Gengembre, a French architect and artist, and his English wife, Marianne Farey (1799–1883), a daughter of John Farey Sr. (1766–1826) and his wife Sophia Hubert (1770–1830). They married at St Pancras Church, London, on 12 April 1818 Her father was born in 1790 and began working as an architect at age 19. He worked primarily in municipal commissions, like the Mint of the City of Cassel, which he designed and built when he was 19. He was injured during the Revolution of 1830 on the same day that his son Philip was born. The family then went to London, where Gengembre worked as an architect for Charles Fourier. He returned to France and continued his work as an architect, designing communal schools around France.
The family moved to America and adopted the surname Hubert, because of difficulties in people pronouncing their french surname.
After moving to Cincinnati, Ohio, he settled in Manchester, Pennsylvania, and by 1863 had designed pro bono the Allegheny City Hall. He stopped speaking English in protest after he was offered a share of the graft of over-inflated construction costs.." from the article: Sophie Anderson