In Kensal Green cemetery there is a monument with the inscription of ‘TO HER’ written on it and ‘her’ initials (ES) at its base. If you were to come upon it by chance you would wonder who was this person that warranted such a large monument, which is over six metres in height. On top of the three and a half metre pedestal is the statue of Faith. On closer inspection you can read the name Madame Soyer and the words ‘England gave her birth, Genius immortality,’ and carved into the marble is the figure of an artist complete with brushes and palette. A famous artist then – why else would she have this grand memorial? – but it is a name that is not well-known today.
So who was Madame Soyer and did she deserve such a monument? Madame Soyer was in fact Elizabeth Emma Soyer, better known as Emma. She was a proficient artist, especially known for her portraits, and exhibited at the Royal Academy, as well as the British Institute of Artists. Despite producing over five hundred works of art, which were well received during her lifetime, she is largely unknown today. However, the recent appearance of her work on Fake or Fortune means other paintings by her have lately appeared for sale.
It is only through Alexis Soyer that the details of her life are known. The fact that Alexis was the only detailed source of her life is problematic as he embellished his own life history and so all that he wrote about Emma has also to be queried. This is what I set out to do.
Emma met Alexis Soyer in 1835 when he visited the studio of her step-father Francois Simonau who was a portrait artist and previously Emma’s teacher. Alexis recounts how he wanted Simonau to paint his portrait. Emma was present at the sitting and also sketched his image which was later engraved. The courtship went on for two years, and in that time Alexis moved from his position as chef in a country estate to the Reform Club in London in order to be closer to Emma as well proving that he would be a suitable husband.
Investigating Emma’s life was difficult as her maiden name was Jones. Through my original research I was able to establish that some of the details that Alexis had included in his biography of Emma were incorrect, including her age. Establishing a definitive date of her birth was not possible, but was probably not 1811, which has been used in all the information published about Emma and more likely to be 1809, which would correspond to the age on her monument.
But Emma’s brother’s name was Newton and so he was easier to trace than Emma. By looking at the censuses I was able to establish that they were a middle-class family. Looking at art exhibitions catalogues I was able to establish how proficient an artist she was. I also searched through newspaper records to find critiques of Emma’s paintings. One writer believed that the producer of one of her works could not have been a woman.[1]
Alexis died from the effects of an illness that he contracted in the Crimea in 1858. With his death there was no on left to promote Emma’s art. After Alexis’s death the paintings that he had in his possession went to auction at Christies and by looking at the auction catalogue that is held in the V&A I was able to establish the value of her work. James Hughes Anderdon, a collector of paintings, was present at the sales and recorded the prices that Emma’s works fetched as well as making comments regarding some of them. He wrote, ‘The sale was highly interesting and some specimens of the lady’s handicraft were pleasing as well as meritorious.’[2] The prices her work accrued varied from £1 1s to £68 (£125 and £8,472 today) and the total amount raised was approximately £383 (equivalent to £47,700 today).
My dissertation investigated the reasons why a talented person is either remembered or forgotten; what are the necessary prerequisites of fame and how is fame maintained? It would be easy to suppose that the reason why Emma is not a well-known artist today is because she was female, but although this plays a part in her lack of public awareness and also played a part in the reduction in her output after her marriage, it is not the only reason. Alexis and Emma formed a creative partnership and although Alexis’s status was enhanced by his marriage, Emma’s role as his secretary led to her own work suffering. After her death Alexis promoted her work in order to demonstrate her talent as well as augmenting his own reputation.
Leo Braudy tells us that ‘fame is made up of four elements: a person and an accomplishment, their immediate publicity, and what posterity has thought about them ever since.’[3] Emma has not been forgotten because she was female, nor has she been forgotten because her art lacked merit. The most important factor for any artist is the body of work that they have left behind and whether it continues to be exhibited and appreciated. I argue that Emma’s renown was stimulated through the efforts of her husband Alexis. When he died, there was no one left to maintain her exposure and so she became forgotten.
Image credit: Monument dedicated to the artist Emma Soyer (née Jones), by Pierre Puyenbroeck Kensal Green Cemetery (author’s photograph).
Portrait by Henry Bryan Hall, after (Elizabeth) Emma Soyer (née Jones), (Elizabeth) Emma Soyer (née Jones), mid-19th century, stipple and line engraving, 183 mm x 135 mm, National Portrait Gallery. Courtesy of wikicommons.
Gabriella Ramsden returned to academia after an absence of six years, having gained her B A in History as a mature student from the Open University in 2012. It was while attending an open evening for potential universities at her youngest son’s college that I came across the University of Buckingham’s M A course in biography. She had been thinking of doing a M A for some time and the subject of Biography intrigued and appealed to me and so she applied to study part-time. She enjoyed the process of researching and writing the dissertation so much she decided to continue her studies and am now researching the Duke of Wellington’s niece and her sister-in-law and their interest, influence, and impact on politics between 1814 and 1870 for her PhD.
[1] F. Volant and J.R. Warren, Memoirs of Alexis Soyer (London: W. Kent, 1859), p.138.
[2] London, The Royal Academy of Arts, AND/26/133, part of Christie and Manson sale catalogue, 5 March 1859, annotated by James Hughes Anderdon.
[3] Leo Braudy, The Frenzy of Renown: Fame & Its History (New York: Vintage Books, 1986), p.23.
