Sophie Gengembre Anderson

Sophie Gengembre Anderson (1823 – 10 March 1903) was a French-born British Victorian painter who was also active in the United States for extended periods. She specialised in genre paintings of children and women, typically in rural settings. She began her career as a lithographer and portrait painter, collaborating with Walter Anderson on portraits of American Episcopal bishops. Her work, Elaine, was the first public collection purchase of a woman artist. Her painting No Walk Today was purchased for more than £1 million.

Early life Anderson was born in Paris, the daughter of Charles Antoine Colomb Gengembre, a French architect and artist, and his English wife, Marianne Farey (1799–1883), a daughter of John Farey Sr. (1766–1826) and his wife Sophia Hubert (1770–1830). They married at St Pancras Church, London, on 12 April 1818.

Her father was born in 1790 and began working as an architect at age 19. He worked primarily in municipal commissions, like the Mint of the City of Cassel, which he designed and built when he was 19. He was injured during the Revolution of 1830 on the same day that his son Philip was born. The family then went to London, where Gengembre worked as an architect for Charles Fourier. He returned to France and continued his work, designing communal schools. The family moved to the United States and adopted the surname Hubert, because of difficulties people had pronouncing their French surname. After moving to Cincinnati, Ohio, he settled in Manchester, Pennsylvania. By 1863, he had designed the Allegheny City Hall "pro bono". He stopped speaking English in protest after he was offered a share of the graft of over-inflated construction costs. The Gengembre family lived in Paris during the early years of Sophie's life, where her father was acquainted with artists, intellectuals and actors, including François Joseph Talma. Circumstances required that the family leave Paris and live in a "remote area in France" from 1829 to 1843. At age 17, she developed an interest in art when a travelling portrait painter visited her town.

She had two brothers, Philip and Henry.

Europe A portrait of a fairy (1869). The title of the painting is Take the Fair Face of Woman, and Gently Suspending, With Butterflies, Flowers, and Jewels Attending, Thus Your Fairy is Made of Most Beautiful Things – from a verse by Charles Ede.

In 1854, the Andersons moved to London, They returned to Pennsylvania in 1858 for a long visit with her family, during which time she exhibited at the Pittsburgh Artist's Association in 1859 and 1860. The latter year she and her husband had work shown at the National Academy of Design. She then settled in London again around 1863.

Anderson's work was widely exhibited at venues including the Royal Academy, the Royal Society of British Artists (RBA), and the British Institution. Her work, Elaine, was one of the first public collection purchases of a living woman artist. The Marquis de Murrieta contributed the painting A Fairy Messenger to a mixed charity exhibition in 1871.

Her oil painting Foundling Girls at Prayer in the Chapel (mid-c19th – late-c19th) is displayed at the Foundling Museum; correlating well with Anderson's typical genre painting of children and women and the museum's focus. The painting depicts the varying ages of the foundling girls, what they wore, and references the religious aspects of their life.

To manage her health issues, She exhibited at the Grosvenor Gallery between 1878 and 1887. Anderson made Italian genre and Neoclassical paintings, including paintings of peasant women and children. At a time when it was difficult for women to have a successful artistic career, these paintings, generally made by men, allowed for her to have a successful career.

Legacy A world record price for her work of more than £1 million was achieved by No Walk Today at Sotheby's, London, in November 2008. It made her "Cornwall's first million-pound female artist."

Anderson's work is in the collection of numerous museums and galleries, mainly in the United Kingdom, including Leicester Museum & Art Gallery; Russell-Cotes Art Gallery & Museum, Bournemouth; Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew; Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool; Birmingham City Art Gallery; Museum and Art Gallery, Walsall, Staffordshire; and the Wolverhampton Art Gallery, Staffordshire.

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