Attributed to Joanna Hilary Bonham Carter
Portrait of Florence Nightingale (1820-1910)
Lot Closed
December 4, 05:33 PM GMT
Estimate
1,200 - 1,800 GBP
Lot Details
Description
Attributed to Joanna Hilary Bonham Carter
1821-1865
Portrait of Florence Nightingale (1820-1910)
Pen and black and grey ink;
inscribed lower centre: Florence Nightingale / drawn by her cousin and given by / her uncle , Mr Bracebridge, to Miss D.L. Dix / who presented it to me in December, 1857 - Dix / Nightingale the Double Star of Charity / in the meridian of the XIX Century / F.L.
247 by 184 mm.
Charles Bracebridge of Atherstone Hall, Warwickshire (1799-1872);
presented by him to Miss Dorothea Lynde Dix (1802-1897),
presented to by her to F.L. (?), December 1857;
Private Collection, America, by circa 1980
S. Tooley, The Life of Florence Nightingale, London, 1910, illustr. opposite p. 48;
E.T. Cook, The Life of Florence Nightingale, London 1914, p. vo. 2, p. 368
It seems very likely that the present drawing was made by Joanna Bonham Carter, Florence Nightingale’s first cousin and a prolific draughtswoman. It has been suggested that the portrait may be based on Julius Cornelius Schaarwachter’s photograph, which shows Nightingale in the same pose. This drawing, which until now has been considered lost, is also connected with a lithograph by Richard James Lane (published in 1854) and a medal that was struck by John Pinches in circa 1856.1
The drawing is inscribed with an inscription which states that it belonged to Florence’s ‘uncle’ Mr Bracebridge. This refers to Charles Bracebridge who, although not in fact related to the Nightingales, was a very close family friend. He and his wife Selina, travelled extensively with Florence and it was they who encouraged her to enter into the medical world. Florence described the Bracebridges as ‘the creators of my life’ and Selina Bracebridge as ‘more than mother’.2
The inscription then implies that the work was given by Charles Bracebridge to Miss D.L. Dix. This is undoubtedly Dorothea Lynde Dix (1802-1887), an American nurse who was appointed Superintendent of Army Nurses during the American Civil War. Dix was a great admirer of Florence Nightingale and had narrowly missed meeting her on two occasions: once in the spring of 1856 when she herself had been in the Crimea (Dix arrived at Scutari only to discover that Nightingale was at Balaclava), and for a second time, when later that year - after Florence had returned to England - Dix had been invited by the Bracebridges to meet Florence at their home Atherstone Hall in Warwickshire. Sadly for Dix, the plan was foiled when Florence was called away to Scotland for an interview with Queen Victoria.
- National Portrait Gallery: NPG D22261, NPG D22404 and NPG D7043
- M. Calabria, Florence Nightingale in Egypt and Greece, 1996, p. 6
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