Emma Gaggiotti Richards

Summary

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

Emma Gaggiotti Richards
Born
Emma Camilla Angela Maria Gaggiotti

1825
Died1912 (aged 86–87)
NationalityItalian
EducationNicola Consorti
Known forpainting
Spouse
(m. 1849)

Life edit

She was the daughter of Camillo and Angelina Gaggiotti.[1] Born in Rome in 1825, she grew up in Ancona. She was taught to paint by Nicola Consorti.[2] Her father, Camillo Gaggiotti was the minister of war in Rome.[3]

On 15 February 1849 she married the journalist Alfred Bate Richards.

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.[2] The following year Richards returned to Italy where she continued to paint.[3] One of her works was a portrait of Alexander von Humboldt.[4] From 1865 to 1904 she was in Florence.[5]

Richards moved to Velletri in 1904[5] and died there in 1912.[6]

Legacy edit

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.[2] Another painting of hers, of Adelaide Proctor, is in the National Portrait Gallery in London.[7] An 1855 portrait of Alexander von Humboldt, formerly in the collection of the Corcoran Gallery of Art, was at that institution's dissolution accessioned by the National Portrait Gallery.[8]

References edit

  1. ^ "Angelina Gaggiotti - The Thorvaldsens Museum Archives". arkivet.thorvaldsensmuseum.dk. Retrieved 2018-07-06.
  2. ^ a b c "Explore the Royal Collection Online". www.royalcollection.org.uk. Retrieved 2018-07-05.
  3. ^ a b "Richards, Alfred Bate (1820–1876), writer and promoter of the volunteers | Oxford Dictionary of National Biography". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. 2004. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/23528. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)
  4. ^ archiv_admin. "AH_BLE-0001 — Archiv der Berlin-Brandenburgischen Akademie der Wissenschaften". archiv.bbaw.de (in German). Archived from the original on 2018-07-06. Retrieved 2018-07-06.
  5. ^ a b "Ontdek schilder, musicus, zanger Emma Gaggiotti-Richards". rkd.nl (in Dutch). Retrieved 2018-07-06.
  6. ^ Jane Fortune; Linda Falcone (2010). Invisibile women. Forgotten artist of Florence. Ediz. italiana e inglese. TheFlorentinePress. pp. 215–. ISBN 978-88-902434-5-5.
  7. ^ "Emma Gaggiotti Richards - Person - National Portrait Gallery". www.npg.org.uk. Retrieved 2018-07-06.
  8. ^ "Alexander von Humboldt". npg.si.edu.