Victorian Art in Britain

The Great Pre-Raphaelite We Lost. Joanna Boyce was born in London. She was the sister of George Boyce, the watercolour painter, and friend of Rossetti. She was thus known to the inner circle of the original PRB. Joanna Boyce showed precocious artistic talent as a girl, and received some artistic training. In 1852 she accompanied her father on a holiday in Paris. She later attended the Government School of Design. In 1854 she exhibited at the RA for the first time, with her remarkable picture Elgiva, the quality of which was noted by Ruskin. In 1854, she journeyed to Paris for further training.

At this time Joanna Boyce met Henry Wells, her future husband. A family friend, a newspaper editor, invited her to review two substantial art exhibitions on the Continent for the Saturday Review. She toured France and Italy with Henry Wells in 1857, and married him late in the year. Joanna Wells gave birth to a son Sydney, in, I think 1858. Her painting of Sydney dated 1859, was rejected by the Royal Academy. What possible justifiable reason there can have been for the rejection it is not possible to establish. This painting, beautifully done, sensitive, and possibly the best depiction of a small child I have seen, is truly a great achievement.

The early death of the painter, and Sydney Boyce, who only lived to be ten years old, adds to the poignancy of this remarkable picture. Following the birth of her son, Joanna had two daughters in quick succession, dying shortly after the birth of the second daughter. What a tragedy, and a loss for the world of art. Joanna Wells, had she lived, would I think, have become one of the greatest Pre-Raphaelite painters. Her draughtsmanship was superb, as was her use of colour and shade. Artists need to be able to look beyond their own lifetimes, and even in this area Joanna was unlucky, a number of her works being destroyed during the bombing of Bath in the Second World War. The source of much of the information on Joanna Wells, is the excellent catalogue of the Pre-Raphaelite Women Artists Exhibition by Jan Marsh and Pamela Gerrish Nunn.

CONTEMPORARY COMMENT

Visitors to this site will know that I have the highest regard for the unfortunate Joanna Boyce, whose career was terminated by her death in childbirth at the age of only thirty one. Unhappily, to compound this loss, some of her pictures were destroyed during the Second World War.

Whilst researching another subject I found these short comments about the quality of the lady's work by two notable contemporary art figures. I reproduce them below.

Ford Madox Brown. When Brown saw the Joanna Boyce picture "Elgiva" at the Royal Academy Exhibition In 1855 he said it was the "work of the best hand in the rooms."

William Michael Rossetti. Following the tragic death of the painter in 1861, Rossetti a good critic and shrewd judge said of her: "the best painter that ever handled a brush with a female hand."

Death Notice of Joanna Boyce

The Times Saturday July 20^th 1861

WELLS. On the 15^th inst at 9 Upper Phillimore Gardens, Kensington Mrs Henry T Wells aged 29.