Barbara Leigh Smith Bodichon

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Barbara Leigh Smith Bodichon

Barbara Leigh Smith Bodichon (born April 8, 1827 in Carlton Crescent , Southampton , United Kingdom ; died June 11, 1891 in Robertsbridge , East Sussex , United Kingdom) was an English educator and artist, and a leading feminist and middle-class women's rights activist 19th century. She published in 1854 her influential work letter Summary of the Laws of England Concerning Women (dt .: Brief Summary of English laws concerning women ). In 1858, she and others founded the English Woman's Journal.

Family background

Barbara Bodichon was the illegitimate child of Anne Longden, a hatter from Alfreton, Derbyshire , and the Whig politician Benjamin (Ben) Leigh Smith (1783-1860), the only son of the radical abolitionist William Smith. Benjamin had four sisters, Frances (Fanny) Smith married William Edward Nightingale , born William Edward Shore, and had a daughter with him, the nurse and statistician Florence . Another sister, Joanna Maria, married John Bonham-Carter (1788-1838), MP, and started the Bonham-Carter family.

Ben Smith's residence was in Marylebone , London, but from 1816 he inherited and bought land near Hastings : Brown's Farm near Robertsbridge, with a sprawling house, built around 1700, and Crowham Manor, Westfield, which had 200 acres of usable space. Although he was a member of the gentry , he had radical views. He was as radical Reformation Unitarians part of the English Dissenters , an advocate of free trade (free trade) and a benefactor of the poor. In 1826 he took over the cost of a school building in Vincent Square in downtown Westminster . And he paid a penny a week in school fees for each child, the same amount the parents had to pay

9 Pelham Crescent Hastings, longtime residence

Smith met Anne Longden while visiting his sister in Derbyshire in 1826. She became pregnant by him, whereupon he took her to the south of England and placed her in a rented apartment in Whatlington, a small town near Battle (East Sussex) . There she lived as "Mrs. Leigh", under the family name of Ben Smith's relatives on the nearby Isle of Wight . The birth of Barbara was a scandal because the couple did not get married. Illegitimacy was a grave social disgrace. Smith rode there daily from Brown's Farm to visit them; and within eight weeks Anne was pregnant again. When their son Ben was born, the four of them went to America together for two years. Another child was added during this time.

When they returned to Sussex, they lived openly together on the farm and had two children. After the birth of their last child in 1833, Anne became ill with tuberculosis and Smith rented the house at 9 Pelham Crescent in Hastings, which faced the sea. The possession of the healthy sea air was very popular at the time. A local woman, Hannah Walker, was employed as a nanny. Anne did not recover there, so Smith took her to Ryde on the Isle of Wight, where she died in 1834.

Life

Ventnor , painted by Barbara Bodichon

Barbara showed a strong character and philanthropy from an early age, which quickly earned her a visible place among philanthropists and social reformers. A group of London friends met her regularly in the 1850s to discuss women's rights, they were called "The Ladies of Langham Place". This meeting became one of the first organized women's movements in the UK. They were busy dealing with many matters, to which the Married Women's Property Committee also contributed. 1854 she published her work letter Summary of the Laws of England Concerning Women (German: Short collection of English laws affecting women ), which prove to be very helpful in by bringing the Women's Property Act Married in 1870 proved, a law which is about the right of married women to own property went. During this period she became a close friend of artist Anna Mary Howitt, for whom she modeled on several occasions.

In 1857 she married the eminent French physician Eugène Bodichon, and although she spent the winters of several years in Algiers , she continued to direct the movements in England which she had initiated for the benefit of the "English women".

In 1858 she founded the English Women's Journal , a body to discuss employment and equality issues directly related to women, especially manual or intellectual activities in the industrial sector, with the expansion of employment opportunities and the reform laws that deal with the relations of the sexes went down.

In 1866 she worked with Emily Davies to develop a plan to expand university education for women. The first small experiment in this regard in Hitchin developed into Girton College , to which she freely devoted a lot of money and time.

Barbara Bodichon's name on the "Memorial to the Reformers" ( Kensal Green Cemetery # The Reformers' Memorial ) in Kensal Green Cemetery

Bodichon was a Unitarian who wrote the following about Theodore Parker : He prayed to the Creator, the infinite Mother of us all (always using Mother instead of Father in this prayer). It was the prayer of all I ever heard in my life which was the truest to my individual soul. (German: He prayed to the Creator, the infinite mother of all of us (always using the expression mother instead of father in this prayer). It was the only prayer in my life which, deep down, appeared to me to be the truest. )

On November 21, 1865, Barbara Bodichon, supported by Jessie Boucherett and Helen Taylor , developed the idea of ​​parliamentary reform aimed at gaining the right to vote for women.

Despite all of her public interests and obligations, she found time for society and her favorite art, painting. She studied with William Holman Hunt . Her watercolors, exhibited in the salon, at the Royal Academy and elsewhere, showed great originality and talent. They were admired by Corot and Daubigny . Her London salon included many literary and artistic celebrities of the era. She was the closest friend of George Eliot and, according to her, the first to recognize Adam Bede's authorship . Her personal appearance is said to have been best described in the work Romola .

Bodichon died in Robertsbridge , Sussex, on June 11th, 1891.

Training and activities

Wildflowers , watercolor by Bodichon

Bodichon's maiden name was originally Smith. She was an English leader in the movements for better education and political rights for women during the 1880s. Her name was Barbara Bodichon after she married the French doctor Eugene Bodichon in 1857, but the marriage did not stop her from pursuing her campaigns for women's rights to education.

Bodichon studied at Ladies' College in Bedford, founded in London, England in 1829. Here she received instructions for her work as a professional artist, not so much as an art teacher. Bodichon came from a liberal Unitarian family with their own income and assets. Her wealth gave her more freedom to develop as an artist.

After she had enrolled in Bedford College, she organized and opened in 1852 in collaboration with Elizabeth Whitehead the "Portman Hall School" in Paddington.

In 1854 Bodichon published her work Brief Summary in Plain Language of the Most Important Laws Concerning Women (German: Short summary of the most important laws concerning women ), which was of decisive importance in the later deliberation of the "law on the property of married women" ( Married Women's Property Act 1870 ). Together with Emily Davies she presented the idea of ​​a university education for women and was able to conduct the first attempt at a college in Hitchin, which then developed into Girton College, which Bodichon took care of intensively. She herself studied with the English artist William Henry Hunt in order to develop her skills in watercolor painting.

Bodichon was part of the Langham Place Circle , a group of progressive female artists who helped develop English Woman's Journal . During the 1850s this group fought for women's education, female employment, women's property rights and women's suffrage. In 1859, Bodichon signed a petition, along with artists such as Eliza Fox, Margaret Gillies and Emily Mary Osborn, calling for women to enter the Royal Academy School. Her request was denied on the grounds that it was claimed that the Royal Academy should develop separate courses for women. In 1860, Laura Herford, one of the artists fighting for access, applied using only her initials. It was accepted, much to the annoyance of the academy management. Herford's enrollment was allowed and gradually more female artists were accepted in the years that followed.

Repair

Irene Baker and Lesley Abdela helped restore Barbara Bodichon's grave in 2007 in the small cemetery in Brightling, East Sussex , about 50 miles from London. It was in poor condition, with a rusted border and a partial break. The inscription on the tomb was almost illegible. Nottingham Trent University historian Judith Rowbotham published an appeal to donate approximately £ 1,000 to the restoration of the tomb and its surroundings. The border was sandblasted and repainted, and the granite tombstone was cleaned.

See also

literature

  • Barbara Bodichon: An American Diary, 1857-1858. London, Routledge & Kegan Paul 1972. ISBN 0710073305
  • Hester Burton: Barbara Bodichon . London, John Murray 1949.
  • Elizabeth K. Helsinger: The Woman Question; Social Issues, 1837-1883 . Taylor and Francis 1983. ISBN 0824092325
  • Sheila R. Herstein: A mid-Victorian feminist, Barbara Leigh Smith Bodichon . New Haven, Yale University Press 1985. ISBN 0-300-03317-6
  • Pamela Hirsch: Barbara Leigh Smith Bodichon: Feminist, Artist and Rebel . London, Chatto & Windus 1998. ISBN 0-7011-6797-1
  • Stephen Lingwood: The Unitarian Life: Voices from the Past and Present . London, Lindsey Press 2008. ISBN 978-0-85319-076-9
  • Jan Marsh, Pamela Gerrish Nunn: Pre-Raphaelite Women Artists . London, Thames & Hudson 1998. ISBN 0-500-28104-1
  • Jacquie Matthews, Barbara Bodichon: Integrity in diversity (1827-1891) . In: Dale Spender (Ed.): Feminist theorists: Three centuries of key women thinkers , Pantheon 1983, pp. 90-123. ISBN 0-394-53438-7

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Barbara Leigh Smith Bodichon: The Hastings Connections by Helena Wojtczak (Hastings Press) ( April 20, 2016 memento in the Internet Archive ). Retrieved March 27, 2019
  2. ↑ Brief Summary of the Laws of England concerning Women - German: Brief summary of the English laws concerning women.Retrieved March 28, 2019
  3. ↑ Pam Hirsch: Article "Howitt (Watts), Anna Mary (1824-1884)" In: Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. Edited by Oxford University Press 2004. Retrieved March 28, 2019
  4. ↑ Chisholm, 1911
  5. ↑ Chisholm, 1911
  6. ^ Lingwood, 2008.
  7. ↑ Jessie Boucherett. Retrieved March 28, 2019
  8. ↑ The Victorian web: Barbara Leigh Smith (Madame Bodichon) and Hastings ( memento from July 20, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) - Short biography of Helena Wojtczak. Retrieved March 27, 2019
  9. ↑ Short biography of Barbara Bodichon , accessed on March 28, 2019
  10. ^ Whitney Chadwick: Women, Art, and Society . 5th edition. London: Thames & Hudson, Ltd. 2012. Print.
  11. ^ Campaigner's tomb appeal launched (en-GB) . September 5, 2007. 

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Bodichon, Barbara Leigh Smith
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Bodichon, Barbara
BRIEF DESCRIPTION English educator and artist
DATE OF BIRTH April 8, 1827
PLACE OF BIRTH Carlton Crescent , Southampton , United Kingdom
DATE OF DEATH June 11, 1891
Place of death Robertsbridge , East Sussex , United Kingdom