Anna Mary Howitt

Anna Mary Howitt
Born	15 January 1824 Nottingham, England
Died	23 July 1884 (aged 60) Dietenheim, German Empire
Education	Henry Sass's Art Academy (London) and a private two-year apprenticeship under Wilhelm von Kaulbach (Munich)
Spouse	Alaric Alfred Watts
Children	no children
Parent(s)	William Howitt (1792–1879) Mary Botham

Anna Mary Howitt, Mrs Watts (15 January 1824 – 23 July 1884) was an English Pre-Raphaelite professional (history) painter, professional writer, women's rights activist and spiritualist. Following a health crisis in 1856, she exhibited rarely as a painter, but continued to work as a professional writer. She became a pioneering drawing medium. It is likely the term "automatic drawing" originated with her. She was involved in the married women property committee.

Painter, writer and women's rights activist

Anna Mary Howitt was born in Nottingham as the eldest surviving child of the Quaker writers and publishers William Howitt (1792–1879) and Mary Botham (1799–1888). She also spent her childhood in Esher. She started to illustrate her mother’s literary work at the age of 10. When her father William Howitt showed her designs of the heads of The Seven Temptations to Henry Sass, the principal of the Sass’s Academy, several other artists, including his successor Francis Stephen Cary were impressed. The family moved to Heidelberg when Anna Mary was a teenager, as they felt Germany offered better educational options. In Germany she met famous German writers and painters such as the well-known history painter Wilhelm von Kaulbach who fired her to become a professional history painter. She also met the Swedish writer Frederika Bremer because her mother was learning Swedish and Danish to be able to translate the works of Bremer and Hans Christian Andersen. Bremer inspired Anna Mary's activism for the woman's cause. She returned to London with her family when her little brother Claude suffered a knee infection and her parents did not want to see his leg amputated. Her brother's untimely death in 1844 led to bouts of depression. A year later she met Barbara Leigh Smith, a landscape painter and women's rights activist, in Hastings. A network of young aspiring professional women artists was formed who tried to establish a 'Sisterhood in art' as an alternative to the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood. These women included Bessie Rayner Parkes and Eliza Bridell Fox. Howitt entered Henry Sass's Art Academy in London in 1846, where her contemporaries included the future Pre-Raphaelites William Holman Hunt, Dante Gabriel Rossetti and Thomas Woolner but also her artistic sister Eliza 'Tottie' Fox. This was one of the few places where female artists could receive first-class tuition. Her art teacher and the head of the Sass's art school in Bloomsbury, Francis Stephen Cary, who had seen Anna Mary's illustrations she made as a 10-year old, personally paid for her fees when her parents went bankrupt. Cary even arranged sittings expressly for her. One of these sittings -probably arranged by Cary for Howitt- was for a portrait of the American painter John Banvard who visited London in February 1849 to exhibit his panoramic Mississippi River Valley painting. Anna Mary painted this portrait in his apartment rooms in London.

portrait of John Banvard by Anna Mary Howitt

In 1847 she illustrated her mother's book The Children's Year.

An illustration for her mother's book The Children's Year

In 1850, Howitt accompanied her fellow artist Jane Benham to Munich, where she studied under Wilhelm von Kaulbach. She began to publish articles about the city that were later collected in her book An Art-Student in Munich (1853). The book was a succes in the UK and in the US.

The New York Times (11 May 1854) wrote this about An Art-Student in Munich: "All that is peculiar to Munich, – its museums, galleries, festivals, and works of art, – or to German life, whether in high or low degree, and still more to the cultivation of the artist, is told in these pages with a beautiful earnestness and a naive simplicity, that have a talismanic effect upon the reader. It is one of those sunny works which leave a luminous trail behind them in the reader's memory." Howitt, at this stage in life, was subjected to two influences,"connected on the one hand with the social and publishing circles of her parents, the hard-working pillars of the London literary establishment, and on the other hand with a group of forward-looking, feminist women of her own age."

The younger group of her associates consisted of the Langham Place feminists, notably her close friend the artist Barbara Leigh Smith: these joined Rossetti's Folio Club. Howitt made her exhibition debut at the National Institution of Fine Arts in 1854 with a painting inspired by Goethe's Faust, Margaret returning from the fountain or Gretchen at the fountain. She had begun painting this picture after she ended her engagement with her fellow artist Edward La Trobe Bateman in the summer of 1853. This was shortly after she received a letter by her father William, who was staying with Bateman in Australia, indicating that Bateman was 'unreliable' and not suitable as her future husband. Anna Mary acted upon this letter and chose as subject Margaret who was tortured by self-accusation after she had been seduced by Faust. She painted it in outdoor sunlight and according to her friend and fellow artist Dante Gabriel Rossetti 'it was a most difficult task, and a very good picture'. This painting was first refused by the board of the British Institution, a decision which outraged Rossetti. It is likely that Rossetti advised Howitt to exhibit this painting in the National Institution at the Portland Gallery, where he had exhibited his Ecce Ancilla Domini in 1850. This venue was more accessible to women artists who suffered discrimination by other art venues. In a letter Rossetti addressed to Ford Madox Brown, dated 30 March 1854, he reported about the success of Howitt's painting of Margaret or also addressed to as Gretchen. Rossetti had heard from his brother and art critic William Michael Rossetti that the painting had been ‘kicking up quite a great row’, indicating that it had been ‘much noticed and admired'. Although her exhibition debut was generally praised in the British periodical press it also received patronising criticism. William Michael Rossetti wrote the most favorable review in The Spectator on the 18th of March 1854. Although he indicated some 'executive deficiencies' he called her work 'the most remarkable contribution…and noticeable alike for delicate depth of feeling and for conscientious study.' He welcomed her as a Pre-Raphaelite artist by highlighting her 'unmistakable adherence to the English Preraphaelite practice, evidenced in the unconventional simplicity of the figure, the rendering of broad out-door sunshine, and the affectionate care bestowed upon the accessories.' William Michael concluded that 'It would be difficult to recall a first picture of more assured promise.’ This concluding view was shared by the art critic of The Art Journal who stated in the review, written on the first of April 1854, that Miss Howitt not only 'produced a picture that would do honour to maturer age and larger experience ' but the art critic also forsaw a promising career, as it was 'safe to auger her future eminence in Art and professional distinction!’ The most mixed and patronising review appeared in the influential London journal The Athenaeum on the same day as Rossetti's review in The Spectator. It was probably written by the primary fine arts reviewer of the Athenaeum during the mid-nineteenth century, Frank Stone. Stone had previously singled out the Pre-Raphaelite Brethern, most notably Millais, Hunt and Rossetti, for a personal attack and publicly ridiculed their works in the early 1850s. In spite that he saw 'head and heart work in this little poem of a picture', he went right to the core that she was an aspiring female history painter who according to Stone showed 'more heart than women usually show to the sorrows of their own sex, and painted by a hand with the firm delicacy of a man’s execution.' In short he questioned implicitly if the painting was executed by Howitt herself. In his conclusion he indicated the immense popularity of Howitt's painting by stating that her 'able and promising picture was immediately sold, - and might have been sold many times over on the day of the private view.' This review gave Howitt a blow. She confessed in a letter to Barbara Leigh Smith that she turned scared of using her favourite colour green. The success of her debut led, according to her mother Mary who wrote to Annie's American publisher on March 31, to two commissions, one from the lady Angela Burdett-Coutts. Besides the commissions and the works she prepared for the exhibitions Howitt also made sensitive sketches and drawings of people who posed for her. In the early 1850s she met Elizabeth Siddal, Rossetti's muse, model and pupil. Siddal who had posed for the Pre-Raphaelite Brethern became an artist, a painter and a poet, in her own right. Anna Mary Howitt, Barbara Leigh Smith and Bessie Rayner Parkes became highly intrigued by this young naturnal born talent who they regarded as 'a genius'. Siddal's frail health was a big concern for the Howitt family who sent her to their family doctor, James John Garth Wilkinson. His diagnosis of scoliosis led Leigh Smith to help organise a convalescent stay for Miss Siddal (or Lizzie as they would call her) in Hastings. Rossetti had asked for help because he realised that his beloved Lizzie was 'under a ban of having been a model' and wanted her to be around 'Ladies'. Howitt, Leigh Smith, Parkes wanted 'to keep her self esteem from sinking' and took her down to the Sussex coast. On May 8 1854 Howitt, Leigh Smith and Rossetti all drew Lizzie with irises in her hair during their stay at Scalands Farm, the country house of Leigh Smith at Robertsbridge. Iris was the goddess of the rainbow and the messenger between heaven and earth. The sensitive portrait of Lizzie made by Howitt shows that Howitt captured the fragile spirit of Siddal who lowered her eyes when Howitt was drawing her. Howitt and Leigh Smith also went on painting expeditions while they were staying at Scalands Farm during May 1854.

Howitt gave Leigh Smith valuable instruction in oil painting. It was also during this stay that the topics of women's rights were discussed such as women's education and married property. In 1855 she exhibited two other paintings. The first, The Sensitive Plant, in response to Shelley's poem 'The Sensitive Plant' and later called The Lady was shown at the same venue, the National exhibition of the Portland Gallery (previously known as the Free Exhibition). Her second painting The Castaway (Royal Academy, 1855) was unusually daring in showing a woman who had sunk into prostitution. The Castaway was hung above the line so she drew less critical attention than other artists. In 1855 she formed a committee with her mother Mary Howitt, Barbara Leigh Smith, Eliza Fox, Bessie Rayner Parkes and several other professional women artists to collect signatures for a petition that would lead to the Married Women's Property Act 1870. Family accounts record her distress over criticism from John Ruskin of her ambitious painting of Boadicea or Boudica which was also rejected by the Royal Academy. Ruskin sent his verdict in a patronising private letter: 'What do you know about Boadicea? Leave such subjects alone and paint me a pheasant's wing'. It crushed her spirit and led to a serious mental breakdown, probably also a psychosis. Her aspiration to be a recognized history painter was denied. Ruskin's attack came shortly after Effie Gray divorced him on the grounds of not 'consuming' their marriage. Anna Mary Howitt was a friend of John Everett Millais, Ruskin's protégé and Effie Gray's future husband. Howitt's subsequent mental breakdown may have contributed to her retreat from the professional art world, but her own account, published under a pseudonym in Camilla Dufour Crosland's Light in the Valley: My Experiences of Spiritualism(1857), suggests a neurological event, perhaps the onset of frontal lobe epilepsy.However, she did not cease to exhibit works. She carefully chose where she would exhibit her works in order to avoid patronising criticism. She exhibited From a window, a window special to her and her husband Alfred Watts, at the Society of Female Artists in 1857. This society, founded in 1855 for women artists made it possible for women who had great difficulty in obtaining a public showing of their works and a proper art education (Their education in the arts was limited and they had been excluded from the practice of drawing from the nude figure since the Royal Academy was founded) to find a public venue. This society is now known as the Society of Women Artists.

Marriage and spiritualism

Spirit drawing by Howitt

In 1859, Howitt married a childhood friend and fellow spiritualist, Alaric Alfred Watts. Watts consistently supported Anna Mary. The couple moved to Cheyne Walk in Chelsea, a few doors away from Dante Gabriel Rossetti. Howitt continued to publish regularly, most often in the spiritualist press. She helped her husband, a revenue clerk, to dream his dream and to become a published poet just like his own father,Alaric Alexander Watts. With Alfred she co-authored Aurora: a Volume of Verse (1884). Her Pioneers of the Spiritual Reformation (1883) consisted of biographical sketches of the German poet Justinus Kerner and of her father William Howitt. Her spirit drawings are exceptional in their power and reveal her pre-raphaelite training. Their religious character is obvious, showing angels, the divine mother and child, and other such themes. She was seeking a female interpretation of religion and foremost of the divine motherhood. The Watts marriage remained childless. Yet Anna Mary Howitt always wanted to be in the presence of children, becoming 'a mother' to poor children when she was helping in soup kitchens and by teaching these children in later life.

Australian connection

She remained close to her brother, Alfred William Howitt, who had emigrated to Australia, where he became an explorer and pioneering anthropologist. Acting as his de facto agent in England, she secured equipment, vetted texts, and maintained academic ties on his behalf.

Though the whereabouts of her surviving oil paintings were still not known in 2019, a large number of Howitt's "spirit drawings" — images originated without her conscious control — remain in the archives of the College of Psychic Studies in London. Howitt was an inspiration to the artist medium Georgiana Houghton. With the expanding public interest in spirit-driven artists such as Emma Kunz and Hilma af Klint, Howitt's drawings are currently receiving greater academic attention.

Howitt's family was acquainted with the novelist Charles Dickens, who offered critical commentary on her writing.

Anna Mary Watts died of diphtheria in 1884 at Mair am Hof in Teodone (Brunico), during a visit to her mother in Tyrol (since 1919 part of Italy).

See also

English women painters from the early 19th century who exhibited at the Royal Academy of Art

• Sophie Gengembre Anderson
• Mary Baker
• Ann Charlotte Bartholomew
• Maria Bell
• Barbara Bodichon
• Joanna Mary Boyce
• Margaret Sarah Carpenter
• Fanny Corbaux
• Rosa Corder
• Mary Ellen Edwards
• Harriet Gouldsmith
• Mary Harrison (artist)
• Jane Benham Hay
• Mary Moser
• Martha Darley Mutrie
• Ann Mary Newton
• Emily Mary Osborn
• Kate Perugini
• Louise Rayner
• Ellen Sharples
• Rolinda Sharples
• Rebecca Solomon
• Elizabeth Emma Soyer
• Isabelle de Steiger
• Henrietta Ward

Publications

• An Art Student in Munich (1853)
• A School of Life (1855)
• Aurora: A Volume of Verse (1875)
• The Pioneers of the Spiritual Reformation (1883)

External resources

• Rachel Oberter, Spiritualism and the Visual Imagination in Victorian Britain, PhD dissertation, Yale University, 2007
• Black-and-white reproduction of AMH's 1849 portrait of fellow artist John Banvard (1815–1891): Retrieved 9 July 2011. Archived 18 October 2012 at the Wayback Machine
• The text of An Art-Student in Munich online: Retrieved 9 July 2011.
• The text of The Children's Year by Mary Howitt, illustrated by her daughter Anna Mary Howitt: Retrieved 9 July 2011.
• A chapter on Anna Mary Howitt's travels in Munich in Heidi Liedke: The Experience of Idling in Victorian Travel Texts, 1850–1901. Palgrave Macmillan, 2018 Retrieved 17 August 2018.