Emma Mary Sargant Florence (21 July 1857 – 14 December 1954) was a British painter of figure subjects,

mural A mural is any piece of graphic artwork that is painted or applied directly to a wall, ceiling or other permanent substrate. Mural techniques include fresco, mosaic, graffiti and marouflage. Word mural in art The word ''mural'' is a Spani ...

decorations in fresco and occasional

landscapes A landscape is the visible features of an area of land, its landforms, and how they integrate with natural or man-made features, often considered in terms of their aesthetic appeal.''New Oxford American Dictionary''. A landscape includes the p ...

watercolour Watercolor (American English) or watercolour (British English; see spelling differences), also ''aquarelle'' (; from Italian diminutive of Latin ''aqua'' "water"), is a painting method”Watercolor may be as old as art itself, going back to t ...

and pastel.

Biography

Emma Mary Sargant was born in London. Her father, Henry Sargant, was a barrister and her mother, Catherine Emma Beale. Her siblings included: judge

Charles Henry Sargant Sir Charles Henry Sargant (20 April 1856 – 23 July 1942) was a British judge who served as Lord Justice of Appeal from 1923 to 1928. Biography Sargant was born in London, the son of barrister and conveyancer Henry Sargant, and of Cather ...

, botanist

Ethel Sargant Ethel Sargant (28 October 1863 – 16 January 1918) was a British botanist who studied both the cytology and morphology of plants. She was one of the first female members of the Linnean Society and the first woman to serve on their council. S ...

, headmaster Walter Lee Sargant and the sculptor Francis William Sargant. She studied in Paris under

Luc-Olivier Merson Luc-Olivier Merson (21 May 1846 – 13 November 1920) was a French academic painter and illustrator also known for his postage stamp and currency designs. Biography Born Nicolas Luc-Olivier Merson in Paris, France, he grew up in an artist ...

, and, at the

Slade School The UCL Slade School of Fine Art (informally The Slade) is the art school of University College London (UCL) and is based in London, England. It has been ranked as the UK's top art and design educational institution. The school is organised as ...

under Alphonse Legros. She was a member of the

New English Art Club The New English Art Club (NEAC) was founded in London in 1885 as an alternative venue to the Royal Academy. It continues to hold an annual exhibition of paintings and drawings at the Mall Galleries in London, exhibiting works by both members and a ...

and the

Society of Painters in Tempera The Society of Painters in Tempera was founded in 1901 by Christiana Herringham (1852–1929) and a group of British painters who were interested in reviving the art of tempera painting. Lady Herringham was an expert copyist of the Italian Old ...

. In 1888, she married Henry Smyth Florence, an American musician. They had two children:

Philip Sargant Florence Philip Sargant Florence (25 June 1890 – 29 January 1982) was an American economist who spent most of his life in the United Kingdom. Life His wife Lella Secor Florence and their children Born in Nutley, New Jersey in the United States, he wa ...

, the economist, and

Alix Strachey Alix Strachey (4 June 1892 – 28 April 1973), née Sargant-Florence, was an American-born British psychoanalyst and, with her husband, the translator into English of ''The Standard Edition of the Complete Psychological Works of Sigmund Freud''. ...

, the psychoanalyst and translator of Freud. She lived in Nutley, New Jersey in a carriage house that became a studio used by other local artists. After her husband drowned in 1891, she moved to

Marlow, Buckinghamshire Marlow (; historically Great Marlow or Chipping Marlow) is a town and civil parish within the Unitary Authority of Buckinghamshire, England. It is located on the River Thames, south-southwest of High Wycombe, west-northwest of Maidenhead and ...

, and had her house, "Lord's Wood" (1899–1900), built, where she lived until 1940. The interior has been altered but was originally designed to have bare brick walls, no doors and no plumbing. She is known for her works ''Children at Chess'' (c.1903), ''Suffer Little Children to Come unto Me'' (1913) and ''Pentecost'' (c.1913). She painted true fresco decorations at the Old School,

Oakham Oakham is the county town of Rutland in the East Midlands of England, east of Leicester, south-east of Nottingham and west of Peterborough. It had a population of 10,922 in the 2011 census, estimated at 11,191 in 2019. Oakham is to the west o ...

, Rutland (c.1909–14), and at

Bournville Junior School This is a list of schools in Birmingham, West Midlands, England. State-funded schools Primary schools *Abbey RC Primary School, Erdington *Acocks Green Primary School, Acocks Green *Adderley Primary School, Adderley Park *Al-Furqan Primar ...

near

Birmingham Birmingham ( ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, city and metropolitan borough in the metropolitan county of West Midlands (county), West Midlands in England. It is the second-largest city in the United Kingdom with a population of 1. ...

(1912–14). Her frescoes at

Oakham School (Like runners, they pass on the torch of life) , established = , closed = , type = Public schoolIndependent day and boarding , religion = Church of England , president ...

were commissioned by the headmaster, her brother, Walter Lee Sargant, and illustrate the Arthurian story of Gareth. She was a

suffragist Suffrage, political franchise, or simply franchise, is the right to vote in public, political elections and referendums (although the term is sometimes used for any right to vote). In some languages, and occasionally in English, the right to v ...

, a supporter of the Women's Tax Resistance League, and a member of the committee for the Hague Peace Congress of 1915. With the Cambridge scholar and editor

Charles Kay Ogden Charles Kay Ogden (; 1 June 1889 – 20 March 1957) was an English linguist, philosopher, and writer. Described as a polymath but also an eccentric and outsider, he took part in many ventures related to literature, politics, the arts, and philos ...

, she published a book on

militarism Militarism is the belief or the desire of a government or a people that a state should maintain a strong military capability and to use it aggressively to expand national interests and/or values. It may also imply the glorification of the mili ...

and

feminism Feminism is a range of socio-political movements and ideologies that aim to define and establish the political, economic, personal, and social equality of the sexes. Feminism incorporates the position that society prioritizes the male po ...

, which argued that women had the prerogative and responsibility to combat international militarism. It traced the historical connections between and among militarism, imperialism, slavery, and women's subjection. Militarism, it argued, was the predominant factor in the political, economic, and sexual subjugation of women across a wide swath of human history and the late emergence of demands for women's rights. In 1940, she wrote ''Colour Co-Ordination'', a work on the history, theory and aesthetics of colour.M. Sargant Florence. ''Colour Co-ordination'', London: John Lane, 1940 She edited two volumes of the papers of the Society of Painters in Tempera. She died at

Twickenham Twickenham is a suburban district in London, England. It is situated on the River Thames southwest of Charing Cross. Historically part of Middlesex, it has formed part of the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames since 1965, and the boroug ...

, Middlesex.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Sargant Florence, Mary 1857 births 1954 deaths 19th-century British painters 20th-century British painters Alumni of the Slade School of Fine Art Artists from London British illustrators English tax resisters Fresco painters People from Nutley, New Jersey International Congress of Women people English women painters English suffragists 19th-century English women artists 20th-century English women artists