Bell, Eleanor (1848-1907; Irish)
Grandmother’s Bible (c.1880)
Oil on canvas, 74.7 x 106.2 cm
Presented by friends of the artist, 1885
National Gallery of Victoria (p.311.2-1)
New information provided by the artist’s descendants indicates the biographical dates shown here, showing that she was born in Ireland and died in New York, having worked in various centres during her career, including Melbourne (1882-85). For these and other new details on this painting and the artist included here, I am indebted to email correspondence from Peter Freund, July 2024.
This Rembrandt-esque canvas was listed in the 1894 and 1905 NGV catalogues as “Grandmother’s Reading Lesson,” the title under which it also appears in the current online catalogue of the NGV. However, local press reports from 1882 onwards all call it Grandmother’s Bible, the title under which it first appeared in the 114th Royal Academy exhibition (1882, no.263). The painting was a popular inclusion in the opening exhibition of the new Art Gallery of Ballarat’s Gallery Association in 1884, and was then donated to the NGV shortly before the artist left Melbourne in December 1885.
Several other paintings by Bell are extant in other collections, including one purchased for the Art Gallery of New South Wales in 1885 (The Burgomaster).
Refs.
AR 1885, p.36; NGV 1894, p.82 (IV.McArthur Gallery, no.38: recording the artist’s given name as Elinor); NGV 1905, p.90 (III.McArthur Gallery, no.29; also as Elinor)
For the artist, see https://www.askart.com/artist_bio/Eleanor_Margaret_Bell/11194260/Eleanor_Margaret_Bell.aspx (accessed 22 July 2024, with new biographical information from the artist’s descendants). Cf.Bénézit 2, p.60; AKL 8 (1994), p.405; and http://www.daao.org.au/bio/eleanor-bell/ (all suggesting different dates of activity).
For the 1882 RA exhibition catalogue, see https://www.royalacademy.org.uk/art-artists/exhibition-catalogue/ra-sec-vol114-1882. Local press reports from 1882-85 are listed in Trove: see http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article241155898, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article265594027, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article201119709 and http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article197024855 (as mentioned, many thanks to Peter Freund for pointing out these and other archival references, July 2024; all websites noted above accessed 22 July 2024).
For The Burgomaster (AGNSW no.779, dated to the 1870s-80s; with illustration), see http://www.artgallery.nsw.gov.au/collection/works/?artist_id=bell-eleanor. See also http://www.arcadja.com/auctions/en/bell_eleanor/artist/417266/ (regarding an 1879 painting, Feeding the Chickens, auctioned in Amsterdam in 2011; with reproduction)