CROYDON CHRONICLES: A prize-winner at Croydon School of Art went on to become one of the most sought-after portrait artists in Edwardian London, and taught Evelyn Waugh and the Wizard of Oz’s Scarecrow.
DAVID MORGAN recalls the stellar career of Gertrude Massey
On an April evening in 1886, students of the Croydon School of Art, their friends and families, were gathered in the Croydon Public Hall for their annual prize giving ceremony,
The School of Art opened in 1868, above the Public Hall on the corner of George Street and Wellesley Road (where Norfolk House stands today), and it quickly gained a reputation for developing skilful artists. The prize-giving was an opportunity to recognise that year’s creative talents.
The air of anticipation and expectation was palpable. This was not only about who might receive recognition for their artistic prowess, but also about seeing the celebrity who was there to hand out the prizes.
Celebrity artist: Gertrude Massey, née Seth, was often commissioned by Queen Victoria and the Royal family
Lady de Grey was a prominent aristocrat, a close friend of Oscar Wilde and a keen supporter of the arts. Wilde would later dedicate his play, A Woman of No Importance, to socialite Lady de Grey. It was, perhaps, a typically Wildean, double-edged gesture.
Gertrude Seth was among those to collect a prize that night from Lady de Grey, and she would go on to forge a brilliant artistic career, becoming one of the greatest painters of miniatures in the country.
Seth received an honourable mention for her painting in monochrome and oils, and won a first prize for her still-life painting.
Born in 1868, Seth was the daughter of a Prussian-born merchant who dealt in African goods. She grew up in the family home in Penge. Her father’s sudden death necessitated a change in family circumstances, so Gertrude enrolled in the Croydon School of Art and began painting for money. She created calendars and greeting cards, which were sold in local shops.
She was paid for her first portrait commission while she was still at the school. Art was taking over her life.
In 1890, she married the artist Henry Massey and they set up home in Bushey, Hertfordshire. They had a daughter, Eva, born in 1894.
Prize-winner: Gertrude Seth’s student work was recognised when she was at Croydon School of Art
While in Bushey, Gertrude Massey applied to the Herkomer School of Art. Henry was already a student there.
But Gertrude was turned down because she was a married woman. Admission for women was allowed only if they were under the age of 28 and then only if they were single.
Not to be outdone by this rebuttal, it was to her husband that Gertrude turned to to improve her painting. He had studied and lived in Paris and even spent a summer at Pont-Aven, where he met and became friendly with Paul Gauguin.
Henry’s own family had opposed his choice of art as a profession. His parents had wanted him to go into business, and he had spent a year working for William Smith, the man at the head of the WH Smith news vendors’ business, and who was a schoolfriend of his father.
In her memoirs, Gertrude remembered that her husband had been given a gold sovereign for his first fortnight at work and that this coin had hung on his watch chain for years, until he had it made into her wedding ring.
Major miniature: Gertrude Massey’s portraits of Queen Alexandria and the Royals put her in much demand
It was while the couple were living in Bushey that Gertrude began painting miniatures. Her daughter Eva was the subject of several of her early portraits, which were painted onto ivory. Success in this type of painting meant she steadily built up her client base, receiving more commissions.
The family moved to a cottage, 11 Melina Place, in St John’s Wood, in the 1890s so that they would have more studio space to complete their work. Gertrude used the larger studio in the house and her husband the smaller one in the garden.
Gertrude Massey exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1897. She was 29. By then, she had established herself as one of the leading miniaturists of her day. Many visits to royal residences up and down the land had been undertaken so that she could paint members of the Royal family, as well as their pooches. The pets of wealthy Victorians were another common subject for miniature commissions.
In an interview given in the early years of the 20th Century, Massey recalled that she had painted 11 miniatures for the Royals, including Queen Victoria with the Prince of Wales, four children of the Prince, and various dogs belonging to the then King Edward VII and Queen Alexandria.
Gertrude never had much spare time, she told the interviewer, as she was usually working. However, she did admit to enjoying an occasional round of golf, as well as looking after her pets: “a French poodle, several chickens, a pet duck, a tortoise and a hedgehog”.
Painting miniatures, she pointed out, was not an easy task just because they were small. She maintained that all the vigour which went into a full life-sized portrait must also go into the miniature.
King’s sketch: how the future King Edward VIII drew Gertrude Massey at one of her sittings
She also reflected that she rarely just painted just one member of a family or just one pet.
“I had just finished a miniature of Dick, a 14-year-old fox terrier. The lady owner of the dog was delighted with the likeness and asked me to paint a companion miniature of Jack, adding she wanted it done before he lost all his hair.
“Assuming I was to paint another rather ancient canine, I was surprised when a man stepped into the studio and introduced himself as Jack, the lady’s husband!”
Gertrude insisted on “sittings” to compose her miniatures, though of course this proved difficult at times with both children and pets. When doing preliminary sketches of children, she often gave them a pencil and paper and asked them to draw her as she was sketching them. A 1901 drawing of her by Prince Edward, the six-year-old grandson of the King who was to become Edward VIII, the abdicator, was included in Massey’s book Kings, Commoners and Me.
With both Gertrude and Henry each pursuing their own careers, a look at their paintings revealed much about their lives as an artistic couple in the Edwardian era. They observed London life and Henry completed several paintings on this theme, including one entitled “Old Park Lane” and another called “Belgravia”, both completed in 1905.
The two of them went on sketching holidays to newly fashionable towns in Europe, including Bruges and Ostend. Gertrude completed a painting entitled, “Bathing tents, Ostend” after one of these visits.
Henry was a member of the Langham Sketch Club and the influence of popular illustrators such as John Hassall and Dudley Hardy can be seen in both Henry and Gertrude’s work.
It was a supper time meeting at the Langham which was to shape the next period of their lives.
‘At The Dance’ by Gertrude Massey: not all Massey’s works were miniatures, and as this study of Edwardian London shows, she and her husband Henry Massey were much-influenced by the works of post-impressionists such as Paul Gauguin
On one evening in early 1907, Henry discovered Heatherley’s School of Art was up for sale. Despite it being around 10 in the evening, he went straight to the school and opened negotiations on the purchase. The contracts were drawn up and signed within a few days.
From the Massey Collection: ‘Parliament Square’ by Henry Massey
Henry Massey became principal and proprietor, with his wife supporting him in every way she could. He and his wife ran the school for more than 20 years in a “gently eccentric and benign way”, largely in the style of a Parisian atelier. Their methods were designed to foster individuality as well as giving their students a sound grounding in the practice and theory of the arts.
Among the school’s students during their tenure were Claude Flight, who popularised the linocut technique in printmaking, together with Cyril Power and Sybil Andrews, who went on to co-found the Grosvener School of Modern Art in London.
Evelyn Waugh, Mabel Lucie Attwell and Ray Bolger, who played the scarecrow in the Judy Garland movie of The Wizard of Oz, also took classes at Heatherley’s, the oldest independent art school in London, during what has been described as “the gently eccentric and benign” time that the Masseys were in charge, between 1907 and 1934.
In 1912 Gertrude and her sister Florence, a miniaturist in her own right, opened a new studio in Piccadilly, facing Bond Street. They were very well-connected: that August, Queen Alexandra and her daughter Princess Victoria paid a visit.
The Queen regarded Gertrude as a trusted friend because she had painted “A Miniature Portrait of Queen Alexandra in Blue” so delightfully. Massey had also been invited to Balmoral on several occasions to paint Alexandra’s children.
Massey remembered that on one visit to Balmoral, she was invited into Queen Alexandra’s private drawing room. “There were masses of flowers everywhere and high French windows leading to the lawns.” She was offered money by a popular newspaper of the day to reveal what the Queen wore each day. Massey declined such approaches.
Self portrait: Gertrude Massey
Heatherley’s thrived under the Massey leadership and in 1927, after more than 80 years in the original premises in Newman Street, it moved to a much more spacious building in George Street, Marylebone.
It was officially opened by Lord Dewar, who gave his witty speech under the watchful eye of a skeleton, standing in the corner of the “Bohemian attic studio” where the ceremony took place.
Even in old age, Gertrude Massey never resorted to lenses to help her see the details of her work more clearly. “The use of a glass necessitates constant alteration of focus,” she said.
Henry Massey died in 1934, aged 74. Gertrude Massey lived to 89, dying in 1957. Many of her miniatures are held in the Royal Collection today.
- David Morgan has been chronicling Croydon’s history for Inside Croydon for almost a decade. Morgan is a former Croydon headteacher, now the volunteer education officer at Croydon Minster, who offers tours or illustrated talks on the history around the Minster for local community groups
If you would like a group tour of Croydon Minster or want to book a school visit, then ring the Minster Office on 020 688 8104 or go to the website on www.croydonminster.org and use the contact page
Some previous articles by David Morgan:
- Nickel Support group is providing people with real life skills
- Palace winger Harrison’s Match of the Day at Croydon Minster
- All downhill for Odlings after they dismantled London Bridge
- The church fire that consumed a thousand years of history
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