Ellen, Lady Gosse

Lady Ellen 'Nellie' Gosse (née Epps; 23 March 1850 – 29 August 1929) was a British landscape painter. Her work was exhibited across Great Britain and Europe, including at the Royal Academy, Royal Scottish Academy, and Paris Salon. Part of an artistic family, her sisters Laura Theresa Alma-Tadema, Emily Williams, Amy Epps, and her daughter Sylvia Gosse were also all painters. Her husband Sir Edmund Gosse was an English poet, author and critic.

Biography

Ellen Gosse (middle left) with siblings Washington Epps (left), Emily Williams (middle right) & Laura Alma-Tadema (right). Lawrence Alma-Tadema: A Family Group, 1896, oil on panel, 30.5 × 27.9 centimetres.

Gosse was born in Mayfair, London on March 23, 1850, the youngest of six children of homeopath and author George Napoleon Epps and Charlotte Bacon. She received further education at Queen's College on Harley Street, but had ambitions of being a painter.

Ellen was staunchly against marriage and wished to remain independent, determined to pursue her art and earn money for herself. In October 1874 after observing her for a while, Edmund Gosse proposed to her spontaneously at a party – Ellen refused. Edmund repeatedly pursued her and visited her every week until December when she accepted, but only on the condition that the marriage would not impact her career as a painter – he had to promise she "could paint everyday". They married eight months later in August 1875.

Ellen and Edmund were married for over 53 years and had three children: Emily "Tessa" Teresa (1877–1951), physician and author Philip Henry George (1879–1959), and painter Laura Sylvia (1881–1968). The family lived in Paddington and later in 1901 moved Regent's Park, hosting such guests as Henry James, Thomas Hardy, Robert Louis Stevenson and Rudyard Kipling.

Works Hall in Townshend House (1873) Portrait of Laura Alma-Tadema (1873) Marley Hollow, Haslemere (1875/76) Embleton Burn, Northumberland (1882/83) Deep in a Novel (1876) A Sussex Landscape (1877)