Rash's Surname Index
Notes for Anna Massey LEA
Anna Lea Merritt (1844-1930) original etching, title is OPHELIA, plate signed, approx. 8.25 x 5.5 in. plus margins. On wove paper. VG condition. Merritt was born in Philadelphia of Quaker parents, she began drawing lessons at age seven with William Furness. She had years of self-study and then toured Europe with her family and studied at the Louvre in Paris, in Rome and in Dresden with Heinrich Hoffman. In 1871, she began studies in London with Henry Merritt, and she met many prominent Vicotrian and Pre- Raphaelite artists of the day. She and Merritt were married, but he lived only 3 months after that. She wrote a memoir of him illustrated with 23 of her etchings. In 1900, she wrote "the chief obstacle to a woman's success is that she can never have a wife."
MERRITT, Anna Massey Lea, artist, was born in Philadelphia, Pa., Sept. 13, 1844; daughter of Joseph and Susanna (Massey) Lea; granddaughter of Joseph and Anna (Robeson) Lea and of Robert Valentine and Anna (Kimber) Massey, and a descendant of Quaker ancestors in the Kimber and Jackson families, and of Andrew Robeson, first chief-justice of Pennsylvania. She was privately educated with unusual care for that period. When seven years of age she studied art for a few months under William H. Furness. About 1865 she studied under Prof. Heinrich Hoffman in Dresden. In 1871 she went to London, England, and there studied under Henry Merritt, the artist and author, to whom she was married April 19, 1877. She is the author of a memorial entitled "Henry Merritt Art Criticism and Romance," illustrated by twenty-three etchings (1879). She received a diploma and medal at the Centennial exposition, Philadelphia, 1876, and was until 1890 a constant exhibitor at the Royal Academy; was elected a member of the Royal Society of Painter-Etchers, London, and received an award and medal in the British section of the World's Columbian exposition, Chicago, 1893, for large decoration the vestibule of the Women's building. After 1890 she made her home chiefly in a retired village in Hampshire, England, giving much time to subjects suggested by country scenes. The summers of 1893 and 1894 were devoted to mural paintings for St. Martin's church, near Wanersh, Surrey, England. She etched two portraits of Mary Wollstonecraft (1879); portrait of Sir Gilbert Scott (after George Richmond) (1883); portrait of Ellen Terry as Ophelia; and portrait of James Russell Lowell. She painted, among other pictures: Portrait of a Young Lady, exhibited at the Royal Academy (1871); The Pied Piper of Hamelin (1872); St. Cecilia (1875); War (1882); Eve Overcome by Remorse (1885), which obtained a medal and award from the British section at the Chicago World's Fair, 1893; Camilla (1883), honorable mention Paris exposition, 1889; Love Locked Out (1890), purchased by the Chantrey fund and ultimately placed in the National Gallery of British Art; When the World was Young (1891); A Piping Shepherd (1895), purchased by the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts; The Narrow Way,[p.359] and I Will Give You Rest. Of her many portraits the more important include: General Dix (1876); Lady Dufferin (1877); James Russell Lowell (1882); Miss Marion Lea, her sister (1885); General the Earl of Dundonald and Countess Dundonald (1886). Mrs. Merritt is the author of several magazine articles on gardening, and of a book, illustrated by herself, entitled: A Hamlet in Old Hampshire (1901).
| HOME | EMAIL | SURNAMES |
Return to The Pennocks of Primitive Hall website.
The information in this database may contain errors. If you find any questionable data, or if you have something to add my findings, please feel free to e-mail me by clicking on the "E-MAIL" link above. Thank you!
Page built by Gedpage Version 2.21 ©2009 on 07 July 2020