Kathleen Trousdell Shaw (1865–1958) was an Anglo-Irish sculptor. She became an honorary member of the
Royal Hibernian Academy
The Royal Hibernian Academy (RHA) is an artist-based and artist-oriented institution in Ireland, founded in Dublin in 1823. Like many other Irish institutions, such as the RIA, the academy retained the word "Royal" after most of Ireland became in ...
.
Early life
She was born in
Edmonton
Edmonton ( ) is the capital city of the Canadian province of Alberta. Edmonton is situated on the North Saskatchewan River and is the centre of the Edmonton Metropolitan Region, which is surrounded by Alberta's central region. The city ancho ...
, England, one of the daughters of Alfred Shaw, an Irish medical practitioner, and his wife Annie Birch;
her elder sister,
Helen Rous (1863–1934), had a career in acting. Another sister, Mary Helen Shaw, was an artist who spent time in Paris. There was an elder brother Alfred Eland Shaw (1861–1931), a physician known also as an entomologist, who emigrated to Australia.
Kathleen Shaw grew up in Ireland. She was sent, aged 10, to the
Metropolitan School of Art, Dublin, where she studied drawing and sculpture, and won prizes. At age 15 she went to Paris and the
École des Beaux Arts. She suffered from
hearing loss
Hearing loss is a partial or total inability to Hearing, hear. Hearing loss may be present at birth or acquired at any time afterwards. Hearing loss may occur in one or both ears. In children, hearing problems can affect the ability to Language ...
from age 5, and by the time she was 17 was largely deaf. Money was raised in Dublin for her to study with
Charles Desvergnes in Rome. There she met
Lord Dufferin, the British Ambassador to Italy, and so made social contacts.
Working artist
Shaw also studied at some point under
Alfred Gilbert. After Rome, she worked for a period in the
British Museum
The British Museum is a public museum dedicated to human history, art and culture located in the Bloomsbury area of London. Its permanent collection of eight million works is among the largest and most comprehensive in existence. It docum ...
, and then returned to Ireland.
In 1899 she gave a London address, 49 York Street Chambers; these "Ladies' Residential Chambers" in
Bloomsbury
Bloomsbury is a district in the West End of London. It is considered a fashionable residential area, and is the location of numerous cultural, intellectual, and educational institutions.
Bloomsbury is home of the British Museum, the largest mus ...
were for single professional women.
Advertising tuition in drawing and painting, in 1914, Shaw mentioned that she was a medallist at London's Atelier Ludovici.
This was a teaching studio, with a clientele mostly of professional women artists. She gave also details of certifications, and experience in teaching in the
Mary Buss schools, and boy's preparatory schools.
Shaw associated with some of the
Suffrage Atelier group of 1909–1914, and may have been a member: at this period she had a studio in
Hampstead
Hampstead () is an area in London, which lies northwest of Charing Cross, and extends from Watling Street, the A5 road (Roman Watling Street) to Hampstead Heath, a large, hilly expanse of parkland. The area forms the northwest part of the Lon ...
. She was
adopted
Adoption is a process whereby a person assumes the parenting of another, usually a child, from that person's biological or legal parent or parents. Legal adoptions permanently transfer all rights and responsibilities, along with filiation, from ...
by 1911 by Rosamund or Rosamond Venning (1848–1928), with whom she had once travelled to
Athens
Athens ( ; el, Αθήνα, AthÃna ; grc, Ἀθῆναι, Athênai (pl.) ) is both the capital and largest city of Greece. With a population close to four million, it is also the seventh largest city in the European Union. Athens dominates ...
;
Venning was a translator and friend of
Hannah Lynch.
Later life
After
World War I
World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...
, Shaw retired to
Cadmore End
Cadmore, also known as Cadmore End, is a village in the civil parish of Lane End in the English county of Buckinghamshire.
Historically Cadmore End was in two parishes and two counties. Part was a detached part of the parish of Lewknor in Oxfor ...
in
Buckinghamshire
Buckinghamshire (), abbreviated Bucks, is a ceremonial county in South East England that borders Greater London to the south-east, Berkshire to the south, Oxfordshire to the west, Northamptonshire to the north, Bedfordshire to the north-ea ...
, and lived there in Pitt Cottage.
When Venning died in 1928, she made Shaw her executor.
Kathleen Shaw died in 1958.
Her eyesight failed, leaving her
deafblind and able to communicate with friends only through touch. She spent the last years of her life in hospital, moving out of her cottage in Cadmore End.
Her obituarist, the Hon. Mrs. B. R. James had earlier written a biographical article about her in ''Silent World'', the official journal of the
Royal National Institute for the Deaf
The Royal National Institute for Deaf People (RNID), known as Action on Hearing Loss from 2011 to 2020, is a charitable organization working on behalf of the UK's 9 million people who are deaf or have hearing loss.
History
The Royal National I ...
.
Works
Shaw exhibited often, at the
Royal Academy
The Royal Academy of Arts (RA) is an art institution based in Burlington House on Piccadilly in London. Founded in 1768, it has a unique position as an independent, privately funded institution led by eminent artists and architects. Its pur ...
and elsewhere. She made numerous portrait busts, particularly of figures in the church and nobility. She made also pieces with mythological and literary associations.
She showed two works in the Women's Exhibition at
Earl's Court, 1900, "Pomona's Child", and a head of
Wilbraham Egerton, 1st Earl Egerton
Wilbraham Egerton, 1st Earl Egerton (17 January 1832 – 16 March 1909) was an English Conservative Party politician from the Egerton family. He sat in the House of Commons from 1858 to 1883 when he inherited his peerage and was elevated to ...
. She was described some years later positively by ''
The Englishwoman's Review
''The Englishwoman's Review'' was a feminism, feminist periodical published in England between 1866 and 1910.
Until 1869 called in full ''The Englishwoman's Review: a journal of woman's work'', in 1870 (after a break in publication) it was renam ...
'' as "one of the strenuous few who desires to exhibit only of her best".
In demand for monumental art, Shaw created a memorial for the
Royal Irish Fusiliers
The Royal Irish Fusiliers (Princess Victoria's) was an Irish line infantry regiment of the British Army, formed by the amalgamation of the 87th (Prince of Wales's Irish) Regiment of Foot and the 89th (Princess Victoria's) Regiment of Foot in ...
to commemorate their dead of the
Second Anglo-Boer War
The Second Boer War ( af, Tweede Vryheidsoorlog, , 11 October 189931 May 1902), also known as the Boer War, the Anglo–Boer War, or the South African War, was a conflict fought between the British Empire and the two Boer Republics (the South ...
. It was unveiled in 1906 in
Armagh
Armagh ( ; ga, Ard Mhacha, , "Macha's height") is the county town of County Armagh and a city in Northern Ireland, as well as a civil parish. It is the ecclesiastical capital of Ireland – the seat of the Archbishops of Armagh, the Pri ...
. On public display is a portrait bust 1915 of the Rev. Francis William Tremlett (died 1913), in St Peter,
Belsize Park, London. She designed a war memorial for the village of Cadmore End where she lived, which was dedicated in 1920. It took the form of a bronze cover for an octagonal
baptismal font
A baptismal font is an article of church furniture used for baptism.
Aspersion and affusion fonts
The fonts of many Christian denominations are for baptisms using a non-immersive method, such as aspersion (sprinkling) or affusion (pouring). ...
. She signed in 1921 a stained glass window, part of a war memorial at the church of
Malew, in the
Isle of Man
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in Europe ...
.
Awards and honours
Kathleen Shaw had the distinction of being the first female sculptor elected to one of the British academies.
The obituary by James states that Shaw was "a member of the Royal Hibernian Academy, the first woman ever elected to that body."
The latter statement is incorrect: the first female Honorary Member was Margaret Green (1832–1914), elected in 1878. The Academy admitted female students from 1893. James also erred in assigning her election to 1907; based on a listed date of 1900, she was the third female member,
Sarah Purser
Sarah Henrietta Purser RHA (22 March 1848 – 7 August 1943) was an Irish artist mainly noted for her work with stained glass.
Biography
Purser was born in Kingstown (now Dún Laoghaire) in County Dublin, and raised in Dungarvan, County Wate ...
having been elected in 1890.
References
External links
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Shaw, Kathleen Trousdell
1865 births
1958 deaths
19th-century British sculptors
20th-century British sculptors
19th-century English women artists
20th-century English women artists
19th-century Irish women artists
20th-century Irish women artists
Alumni of the National College of Art and Design
British women sculptors
Members of the Royal Hibernian Academy
People from Edmonton, London
Sculptors from London
Sibling artists