Mabel Lee Hankey

Mabel Lee Hankey, née Mabel Emily Hobson, (1867-1943) was a British artist specialising in miniature portraits painted in watercolour.

Mabel Lee Hankey
Self-portrait ca. 1930
Born
Mabel Emily Hobson

14 October 1867
Bath, Somerset
Died5 January 1943
Storrington, Sussex
NationalityBritish
Known forMiniature portraits
Spouse(s)William Lee Hankey

Family and early life

Mabel Lee Hankey was born Mabel Emily Hobson, the fourth child of the artists Henry Edrington Hobson (1819-1881) and Ada Vinson Hardy (1829-1911). She was one of the third generation of artists in the family; both her grandfathers, Henry Hobson and James Hardy, were also artists. Mabel's siblings were also employed as artists: Henry Hope Hobson as a draftsman, Amy Elizabeth Hobson as a portrait painter, and Cecil James Hobson also as a painter of miniature portraits in watercolour.[1][2]

Marriage

In 1896 Hobson married William Lee Hankey (1869-1952), an artist who worked on book illustrations, character studies, landscapes, and pastoral scenes. After changing her name to Mabel Lee Hankey, she was listed variously under Lee Hankey, Lee-Hankey, or Hankey in catalogues. The marriage ended in divorce after 21 years, and thereafter Hankey used the name Mabel Emily Hankey.[2]

Career

Mabel Lee Hankey exhibited at the Royal Academy, the Royal Miniature Society, the Royal Society of British Artists and the Society of Women Artists from 1889 to 1897 under her maiden name (Mabel Emily Hobson), and again from 1898-1914 under the name Mabel Lee Hankey.[2][3] She exhibited over 70 miniature portraits, mainly of women or children, at the Royal Academy.[1]

She painted widely for aristocratic families, but is perhaps best known for her portraits of Lady Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon. In 1905, Lady Cecilia Bowes-Lyon, Countess of Strathmore and Kinghorne commissioned a watercolour miniature portrait of her daughter, Lady Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon, later Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother, which Hankey exhibited at the Royal Academy and is now in the Royal Collection.[4][5][6] Hankey went on to paint Lady Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon a number of times from childhood to adulthood and also her brother, David Bowes-Lyon, in 1916.[2][7][8][9]

In a portrait of Lady Elizabeth painted in 1909, she wears a dress made by her mother, Lady Strathmore, based on a gown in a painting by Velázquez. Sir Roy Strong wrote about the portrait: "...there is never any doubt that the sitter has no element of hesitation or shyness in her relationship with portrait painters. The lustrous blue-grey eyes entrance the onlooker, the winsome tilt of the head already exudes that famous abundant charm, an attribute which is mentioned by every artist who has written any account of a sitting".[1][10]

In 1923 Lady Strathmore commissioned a miniature portrait of Lady Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon wearing an evening dress; the painting was framed in gold and silver set with sapphires, with a jeweled crown at the top. On 23 February 1923 Lady Elizabeth wrote in her diary that a "horrible photographer" had been lying in wait for her when she went for a sitting to Mabel Hankey.[8] The portrait was a wedding gift to Prince Albert, Duke of York on his marriage to Lady Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon in 1923[11][12] The painting is kept on the writing desk of Queen Elizabeth II in her private sitting room at Windsor Castle.[1]

  • Lady Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon aged nine (1909)
  • Edwin Fagg Esq. FRSL (1929)
  • Lady Wimborne, née Cornelia Henrietta Maria Spencer-Churchill (1905)

Towards the end of 1939, Queen Elizabeth commissioned Mabel Lee Hankey to paint her portrait in watercolour, possibly as a means of providing some financial support; a memorandum written by the Queen stipulated that Mabel should be paid in advance for the portrait. At the beginning of the Second World War Mabel Lee Hankey moved from London to Storrington, Sussex (at "Fleurbaix in North Lane). In 1942 Queen Elizabeth commissioned portraits of the Princesses Elizabeth and Margaret, and another portrait of herself. The paintings were completed by Mabel Lee Hankey shortly before she died on 5 January 1943.[1]

Work in public collections

References
  1. Hardy, Kimber G. (2016). The Hardy Family of Artists: Frederick Daniel, George, Heywood, James and their descendants. Woodbridge, Suffolk UK: ACC Art Books Ltd. pp. 176–181. ISBN 978-185149-826-0.
  2. Tormey, Michael. "Mabel Lee Hankey | Michael's Museum". michaelsmuseum.com. Retrieved 2018-09-01.
  3. "Index". chronicle250.com. Retrieved 2018-09-01.
  4. "Mabel Lee Hankey colour etching circa 1910 - portrait a pensive woman | #539353463". Worthpoint. Retrieved 2018-09-01.
  5. "In pictures: The Queen Mother's Collection". Daily Telegraph. 2006-03-14. ISSN 0307-1235. Retrieved 2018-09-01.
  6. "Painting of the Day: A Watercolor of The Queen Mother as a Girl, 1907". stalkingthebelleepoque.blogspot.com. Retrieved 2018-09-01.
  7. "Mabel Emily Hobson Hankey - Artist Biography for Mabel Emily Hobson Hankey". www.askart.com. Retrieved 2018-09-01.
  8. Shawcross, William (2009). Queen Elizabeth: The Queen Mother : the Official Biography. Macmillan. ISBN 9781405048590.
  9. Bousfield, Arthur; Toffoli, Garry (2002-04-01). Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother 1900-2002: The Queen Mother and Her Century. Dundurn. ISBN 9781459714335.
  10. Strong, Sir Roy (4 August 1990). "Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother : portraits". The Sunday Times.
  11. "Early Portraits of Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon, who later became the "Queen Mum" of Britain". Royal History. 2015-12-07. Retrieved 2018-09-01.
  12. "Mary Evans Picture Library - Client Update". www.maryevans.com. Retrieved 2018-09-01.
  13. "In pictures: The Queen Mother's Collection". Daily Telegraph. 2006-03-14. ISSN 0307-1235. Retrieved 2018-09-01.
  14. "ROYAL Art". Getty Images. Retrieved 2018-09-01.
  15. "Victorian women | John Rylands Library Special Collections Blog". rylandscollections.wordpress.com. Retrieved 2018-09-01.
  16. "Luxury and Charity – Lady Cornelia of Canford". Poole Museum Society Blog. 2016-01-29. Retrieved 2018-09-01.
  17. Ltd, e3 Media. "Alice Frances Theodora Wythes, Marchioness of Bristol (1875-1957) 851919". Retrieved 2018-09-01.
  18. Ltd, e3 Media. "Lady Violet Ida Evelyn Lane-Fox, 16th Baroness Darcy of Nayth, Countess of Powis (1865-1929) 1180763". Retrieved 2018-09-01.
  19. (Hons), Claire Russell BA. "Miniature society history". www.royal-miniature-society.org.uk. Retrieved 2018-09-01.
  20. "Summer Days". Christchurch Art Gallery Te Puna o Waiwhetū. Retrieved 1 September 2018.
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