Jane Benham (born 1829, also Jane Benham Hay and Jaine Benham Hay) was a prominent English painter and illustrator of the

Victorian period In the history of the United Kingdom and the British Empire, the Victorian era was the period of Queen Victoria's reign, from 20 June 1837 until her death on 22 January 1901. The era followed the Georgian period and preceded the Edwardian ...

. She was associated with two important artistic movements of the mid-19th century: the

Pre-Raphaelite The Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood (later known as the Pre-Raphaelites) was a group of English painters, poets, and art critics, founded in 1848 by William Holman Hunt, John Everett Millais, Dante Gabriel Rossetti, William Michael Rossetti, James ...

painters of Britain and the

Macchiaioli The Macchiaioli () were a group of Italian painters active in Tuscany in the second half of the nineteenth century. They strayed from antiquated conventions taught by the Italian art academies, and did much of their painting outdoors in order to ...

of Italy.

Biography

Jane Benham was born in

London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...

in 1829 to a family of iron and metal workers. She travelled to Munich in 1850 with a friend, Anna Mary Howitt (1824–1884). Together, they hoped to engage in serious study of drawing and painting, but after their arrival in

Munich Munich ( ; german: München ; bar, Minga ) is the capital and most populous city of the German state of Bavaria. With a population of 1,558,395 inhabitants as of 31 July 2020, it is the third-largest city in Germany, after Berlin and Ha ...

, it became clear that women would not be permitted to study at the

Academy An academy (Attic Greek: Ἀκαδήμεια; Koine Greek Ἀκαδημία) is an institution of secondary or tertiary higher learning (and generally also research or honorary membership). The name traces back to Plato's school of philosop ...

. Undeterred, they approached

Wilhelm von Kaulbach Wilhelm von Kaulbach (15 October 18057 April 1874) was a German painter, noted mainly as a muralist, but also as a book illustrator. His murals decorate buildings in Munich. He is associated with the Düsseldorf school of painting. Biography E ...

, then Director of the Academy, and requested the privilege of private study in his studio. He agreed and permitted them to work there at liberty, although it is unclear how much formal instruction he gave them. Jane stayed in Munich until December 1850, when she was compelled to return to London. Anna Mary remained in Munich for two full years, returning to London in 1852. There she compiled her diary and personal letters into a text, ''An Art Student in Munich'', which was published in 1853 and reissued in 1880. In the text, she uses the pseudonym ''Clare'' to refer to Jane Benham. Jane married artist William Hay in 1851 and they had a son the following year. However, their marriage did not last long as Jane left London for

Florence Florence ( ; it, Firenze ) is a city in Central Italy and the capital city of the Tuscany Regions of Italy, region. It is the most populated city in Tuscany, with 383,083 inhabitants in 2016, and over 1,520,000 in its metropolitan area.Bilan ...

in the mid-1850s. Around the same time, she met Francesco Saverio Altamura (born 1822 or 1826 – died 1897), a painter who had associated with

painters of Tuscany, who are considered the Italian precursors to the

Impressionists Impressionism was a 19th-century art movement characterized by relatively small, thin, yet visible brush strokes, open Composition (visual arts), composition, emphasis on accurate depiction of light in its changing qualities (often accentuating ...

. Altamura had had a colourful life and gained a predilection for historical and religious paintings. They eloped and, after Altamura abandoned his wife (the renowned Greek artist Eleni Boukoura-Altamoura) and their children, they married and they had a son together, Bernardo Hay (1864–1934). Jane Benham Hay exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1848, 1849, 1859, 1861, and 1862. Her two entries of 1859, ''England and Italy'' and ''Portrait of a Boy in Florentine Costume,'' established her reputation. Painted just prior to the unification of Italy, ''England and Italy'' was a powerful statement in favour of democratic unification, as well as a compelling work of art.

John Ruskin John Ruskin (8 February 1819 20 January 1900) was an English writer, philosopher, art critic and polymath of the Victorian era. He wrote on subjects as varied as geology, architecture, myth, ornithology, literature, education, botany and pol ...

noted that both works were "masterly complete in effect".John Ruskin, ''Academy Notes'', Cook and Wedderburn, eds, ''Library Edition of the Collected Works of John Ruskin,'' London, 1903–1912, vol. 14, pp. 211–12. although he did not care for the political overtones. ''England and Italy'' went missing some time after 1859, and was not rediscovered until the late 1990s. In 1867 Jane Hay achieved her greatest professional success with ''The Florentine Procession'', also known as ''The Burning of the Vanities'', which was exhibited by Henry Wallis at the French Gallery in London. This painting is now in the collection of

Homerton College, Cambridge Homerton College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge. Its first premises were acquired in Homerton, London in 1768, by an informal gathering of Protestant dissenters with origins in the seventeenth century. In 1894, the col ...

. Her later life is not well documented, and her date of death is not known.

Notes

References

*Howitt, Anna Mary. ''An Art Student in Munich'', Boston: Ticknor, Reed, and Fields, 1854 *Jan Marsh and Pamela Gerrish Nunn, editors. ''Pre-Raphaelite Women Artists'', Manchester City Art Galleries, 1997. *Nunn, Pamela Gerrish (Ed.) ''Canvassing: Recollections by six Victorian Women Artists'' London: Camden Press Ltd., 1986 *A. Chapman and J. Stabler, editors. ''Unfolding the South: Nineteenth-century British women writers and artists in Italy'', Manchester University Press, 2003. *Orr, Clarissa. ''Women in the Victorian Art World'', Manchester University Press, 1995. {{DEFAULTSORT:Hay, Jane Benham 1829 births English women painters Women of the Victorian era Year of death missing Pre-Raphaelite painters 19th-century English painters 19th-century British women artists Pre-Raphaelite illustrators Female Pre-Raphaelite painters

Biography

See also

Notes

References