Phoebe Earle (1790-1863), known by her married names of Phoebe Dighton and Phoebe MacIntyre, was a painter working in England who was appointed

Flower Painter in Ordinary Flower Painter in Ordinary, also called ''Flower Painter to the Queen'', is a position in the United Kingdom awarded to a painter, and connected to the Queen. Holders of the office included: *Joseph Barney, "Fruit and Flower Painter to the Queen", ...

Queen Adelaide , house = Saxe-Meiningen , father = Georg I, Duke of Saxe-Meiningen , mother = Princess Louise Eleonore of Hohenlohe-Langenburg , birth_date = , birth_place = Meiningen, Saxe-Meiningen, Holy ...

Life

Born 1 September 1790 and baptised on 3 October 1790 at

St Marylebone Parish Church St Marylebone Parish Church is an Anglican church on the Marylebone Road in London. It was built to the designs of Thomas Hardwick in 1813–17. The present site is the third used by the parish for its church. The first was further south, near Ox ...

in London, she was the first child of the Massachusetts painter

James Earl James Earl (May 1, 1761 – August 18, 1796) was an American painter and younger brother of fellow portrait painter Ralph Earl. He was born in Leicester, Massachusetts, and died of yellow fever in Charleston, South Carolina. He lived and worke ...

and Georgiana Caroline Pilkington (1757-1838), Irish daughter of John Carteret Pilkington. Her younger brother, also an artist, was

Augustus Earle Augustus Earle (1793–1838) was a British painter. Unlike earlier artists who worked outside Europe and were employed on voyages of exploration or worked abroad for wealthy, often aristocratic patrons, Earle was able to operate quite indepen ...

and her older half-brother was Admiral

William Henry Smyth Admiral William Henry Smyth (21 January 1788 – 8 September 1865) was a Royal Navy officer, hydrographer, astronomer and numismatist. He is noted for his involvement in the early history of a number of learned societies, for his hydrographic ...

. On 22 June 1812 at St Pancras Old Church in London she married the fellow-painter

Denis Dighton Denis Dighton (1792 – 8 August 1827) was an English painter, best known for his military portraits and battle scenes. Life Denis Dighton was the son of the caricaturist Robert Dighton and a younger brother was Richard Dighton. He enrolled a ...

and they had two sons, the first not living long while the second, Henry Denis Dighton (1817-1874), became an officer in the

British Army The British Army is the principal land warfare force of the United Kingdom, a part of the British Armed Forces along with the Royal Navy and the Royal Air Force. , the British Army comprises 79,380 regular full-time personnel, 4,090 Gurk ...

. In 1820 her work was first accepted for the

Royal Academy Summer Exhibition The Summer Exhibition is an open art exhibition held annually by the Royal Academy in Burlington House, Piccadilly in central London, England, during the months of June, July, and August. The exhibition includes paintings, prints, drawings, s ...

and she exhibited there for much of the rest of her life. The Royal Society of British Artists also showed her work from 1825 on and she was exhibited at the British Institution. When her husband's mental health began to fail, she moved with him and their surviving son to

Brittany Brittany (; french: link=no, Bretagne ; br, Breizh, or ; Gallo: ''Bertaèyn'' ) is a peninsula, historical country and cultural area in the west of modern France, covering the western part of what was known as Armorica during the period ...

, returning to England after his death in 1827. Settling in the spa town of Leamington, she built up a clientele as a teacher of drawing, painting and wax modelling, with her reputation became national in 1830 when she was given the court post of fruit and flower painter to the new Queen Adelaide. Living close to Stratford-upon-Avon, in 1835 she produced a book of hand-coloured lithographs called ''Relics of Shakespeare'' and her work was shown outside England at the Royal Scottish Academy in 1837. On the death in 1838 of her half-sister Elizabeth Smyth (1787-1838), wife of James Murray (1779-1847), who looked after the insane John Murray, 5th Duke of Atholl at his house in Kilburn, Phoebe took over the responsibility and sold her business in Leamington. On 7 February 1839, with her half-brother giving her away, at Christ Church, St Marylebone, she married Patrick MacIntyre, a senior executive of the United Kingdom Life Assurance Company, a predecessor company of Aviva, who moved in with her to care for the Duke. After the Duke died in 1846, the two moved to Kensington and were able to take a long holiday in Europe. Last shown at the Royal Academy in 1854, she died in

Edinburgh Edinburgh ( ; gd, Dùn Èideann ) is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 council areas. Historically part of the county of Midlothian (interchangeably Edinburghshire before 1921), it is located in Lothian on the southern shore of t ...

on 11 December 1863 during a visit to her nephew

Charles Piazzi Smyth Charles Piazzi Smyth (3 January 1819 – 21 February 1900) was an Italian-born British astronomer who was Astronomer Royal for Scotland from 1846 to 1888; he is known for many innovations in astronomy and, along with his wife Jessica Duncan P ...

and his wife Jessie.

Books

''Relics of Shakespeare'', from drawings by Mrs. Denis Dighton, by appointment fruit and flower painter to Her Majesty the Queen. Stratford-upon-Avon, June, 1835.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Earle, Phoebe 1790 births 1863 deaths 19th-century English painters 19th-century English women artists English women painters Painters from London