Edward Hughes, 1832 – 1908

"The Damp Woman", illustration by Edward Hughes, Poor Miss Finch: A Novel, by Wilkie Collins, New York: Harper & Brothers, 1872
"The Damp Woman", illustration by Edward Hughes, Poor Miss Finch: A Novel, by Wilkie Collins, New York: Harper & Brothers, 1872.
"Vere Monckton-Arundell", Edward Hughes, 1889, oil on canvas (Wikimedia Commons)
"Vere Monckton-Arundell", Edward Hughes, 1889, oil on canvas. Wikimedia Commons

Edward Hughes (1832-1908) was a highly-regarded London-born portraitist who catered to aristocratic Europeans and wealthy Americans in the Victorian era. Hughes studied at the Royal Academy, winning a silver medal from the Royal Society of Arts in 1847 for a chalk drawing. He exhibited 36 paintings at the Royal Academy over forty years of his career. Hughes collaborated with George du Maurier to produce the illustrations for Poor Miss Finch, an 1872 novel by Wilkie Collins about a young blind woman.

Around 1878, Hughes began to focus exclusively on portrait painting. His representations of women in particular drew praise from the likes of John Everett Millais, noted Pre-Raphaelite painter. Hughes received his first royal commission in 1895, a full-length portrait of Queen Mary, still on display in the vestibule of Buckingham Palace. He went on to paint a number of European royals and several of these canvases remain in the UK's Royal Collection.

"Miss Jean Reid", Edward Hughes, ca. 1900, oil on canvas

The Dictionary of National Biography: Second Supplement, vol. 2 (1912) includes a lengthy entry on the life and work of Edward Hughes. It describes his later career as "confined entirely to portraits of ladies and children," and notes that "Hughes's many American sitters included Miss Jean Reid (afterwards the Hon. Mrs. John Ward), daughter of Mr. Whitelaw Reid, American Ambassador in London from 1904" (319). There are no extant photos or copies of the Hughes portrait of Jean Reid. The canvas at Reid Hall is undated and unsigned.

Hughes died in 1908 so the portrait was likely executed at the turn of the 20th century, when Jean Reid was still an unmarried young lady. It is also quite likely that the original portrait by Hughes remains in the Reid family or somewhere in the UK, and that the painting at Reid Hall is a copy, perhaps produced by one of the residents of the Girls' Art Club.

Sources

  • Collins, Wilkie. Poor Miss Finch. A Novel with Illustrations. New York: Harper & Brothers, 1872. Google Books.
  • J.D.M. "Hughes, Edward (1832-1908)." Dictionary of National Biography, Second Supplement, vol. 2. Edited by Sir Sidney Lee. New York: Macmillan, 1912, pp. 319-320. HathiTrust.