Emma Gaggiotti Richards (1825 – 1912) was an Italian painter who was active in the United Kingdom. She completed five paintings for

Queen Victoria Victoria (Alexandrina Victoria; 24 May 1819 – 22 January 1901) was Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland from 20 June 1837 until Death and state funeral of Queen Victoria, her death in 1901. Her reign of 63 years and 21 ...

and Prince Albert.

Life

She was the daughter of Camillo and Angelina Gaggiotti. Born in Rome in 1825, she grew up in

Ancona Ancona (, also , ) is a city and a seaport in the Marche region in central Italy, with a population of around 101,997 . Ancona is the capital of the province of Ancona and of the region. The city is located northeast of Rome, on the Adriatic S ...

. She was taught to paint by Nicola Consorti. Her father, Camillo Gaggiotti was the minister of war in Rome. On 15 February 1849 she married the journalist

Alfred Bate Richards Alfred Bate Richards (1820–1876) was an English journalist and author. He turned from law to literature and was the author of a number of popular dramas, volumes of poems, and essays. He was the first editor of ''The Daily Telegraph'', and afte ...

. In 1850 Prince Albert gave three of her paintings, ''Faith'', ''Hope'', and ''Charity'' to his wife Queen Victoria. It is thought that the Queen saw the artist's self-portrait exhibited in 1851 at the Royal Academy and commissioned a second self-portrait which she gave to Prince Albert for Christmas in 1853. The following year Richards returned to Italy where she continued to paint. One of her works was a portrait of

Alexander von Humboldt Friedrich Wilhelm Heinrich Alexander von Humboldt (14 September 17696 May 1859) was a German polymath, geographer, naturalist, explorer, and proponent of Romantic philosophy and science. He was the younger brother of the Prussian minister, p ...

. From 1865 to 1904 she was in Florence. Richards moved to

Velletri Velletri (; la, Velitrae; xvo, Velester) is an Italian ''comune'' in the Metropolitan City of Rome, approximately 40 km to the southeast of the city centre, located in the Alban Hills, in the region of Lazio, central Italy. Neighbouring com ...

in 1904 and died there in 1912.

Legacy

She has five paintings in the Royal collection and three of those, ''Faith'', ''Hope'', and ''Charity'', are exhibited in the Horn Corridor at

Osborne House Osborne House is a former royal residence in East Cowes, Isle of Wight, United Kingdom. The house was built between 1845 and 1851 for Queen Victoria and Prince Albert as a summer home and rural retreat. Albert designed the house himself, in t ...

. Another painting of hers, of Adelaide Proctor, is in the National Portrait Gallery in London. An 1855 portrait of

, formerly in the collection of the

Corcoran Gallery of Art The Corcoran Gallery of Art was an art museum in Washington, D.C., United States, that is now the location of the Corcoran School of the Arts and Design, a part of the George Washington University. Overview The Corcoran School of the Arts & Design ...

, was at that institution's dissolution accessioned by the National Portrait Gallery.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Richards, Emma Gaggiotti 1825 births 1912 deaths Painters from Rome Italian women painters 19th-century Italian painters 20th-century Italian painters 20th-century Italian women artists 19th-century Italian women artists Italian expatriates in the United Kingdom