ISABEL DE STEIGER’S ART WORKS BY YEAR
This is almost certainly not a complete list. Some of the works on it will have been destroyed in a warehouse fire in August 1900 (see my life-by-dates for more information on that); though I only know the names of one or two of those lost works.
Isabel had the habit of slightly altering the title of a work she was exhibiting for the second or third time; so that if you count up the items on the list there will be more works than she actually did.
DATE TITLE ?EXHIBITED MORE THAN ONCE
1874 The Coming Squall...
1874 [untitled. Subtitled] Basking in Heaven’s Light...
1874 Philae Egypt...
1875 Hagar in the Desert Possibly the first of two showings
1875 The Evening Meal, Ramle Egypt
1875 On the Road to Aboukir
1875 Mansours Tent Possibly the first of two showings.
1877 Mansours Possibly the second of two showings
1878 Consuelo
1878 Mrs Patterson The first of two showings
1878 Slave Girl of the Harem
1879 Mrs Patterson The second of two showings
1879 as Cleopatra Personating the Goddess Isis
1879 A Daughter of the Gods The first of two showings
1879 A Daughter of the Gods The second of two showings
I’m not sure how many Cleopatra paintings I’ve got here!
1879 as Cleopatra Receiving an Unfavourable Oracle from the Priestess of Isis
1879/80 as Cleopatra’s Deadly Resolve in the Temple of Isis
as Cleopatra After the Battle of Actium
1880 Athyrtis...
1880 as The Dismissal of Hagar The second of two possible showings
1880 Princess Scheherazada The first of two showings
1881 as The Three Valkyrie Maidens... The first of five possible showings
1881 ?as A Dancing Girl The first of two possible showings
1881 ?as An Eastern Dancing Girl The second of two possible showings
1881 Shatucha, the Bedouin Girl
?1881 ?1886 Virginia Not exhibited; at least, not with that title
DATE TITLE ?EXHIBITED MORE THAN ONCE
1882 Dr George Wyld Never exhibited
1882 title unknown: a “single figure” Yes; not sure how many times
1882 as Semiramide The first of three showings
1882 Mariamne The first of two showings
1882 Mariamne The second of two showings
1882 Morning Effect
1882-85 John the Baptist Never exhibited
mid-1883 Dr Ginsburg Never exhibited
1883 Enchantress The first of two or even three possible showings
1883 Fair Slave Enees-el-Jelees
1883 Lorelei… The first of showings
1883 Semiramis The second and third of three showings
1883 Valkyries The second of five possible showings
1883 Abd-el-Rahman
1883-84 Greek Captive with her Nubian Slave
1884 Eureka! Eureka!
1884 A Dream of Hermes
1884 St John the Baptist Never exhibited
1884 [Mahatma] Morya Probably never exhibited
1884 Nature and Art
1884 Valkyries (full title) The third and fourth of five possible showings
1884 The Veiling of Isis
1884 Fireside Harmony
1885 Enchantress The second of two or three possible showings
1885 Portrait
1885 The Sorceress
If this is also known as ‘the Enchantress’ it’s the third of three possible showings
1885 as Portrait of Miss Mary Tynte Potter The first of two showings
1885 “Trust her not...”
1886 Strada Tiberio
1886 Villa Pompeiana
1886 as The Valkyrie Maidens The fifth of five showings
1886 The Lost Pleiad...
1886 An Odalisque: Cairo
1886 A Lonely Beggar in a Lonely Road: Capri
1887 The Fairy Syren (sic) of the Water Lilies
1887 Harmonia
1887 ...Impression du Voyage
DATE TITLE ?EXHIBITED MORE THAN ONCE
1887 First Blossom of Spring: Almond Blossom, Capri, Italy
1887 A Legend of the Soul...
1887 Portrait of Romola Tynte The second of two showings
1887 Old Court Daventry Northamptonshire
1887 The Rock Syren (sic) Singing the Storm Song
1887 Head of Beatrice
by 1888 portrait Mabel Collins
by 1888 portrait Patience Sinnett
by 1888/89 as Phaedra (no long title) The first of two showings
by 1888/89 Spirit of the Crystal The first of two showings
1888 Celebration of the Mysteries
1889 The Flight of Aurora
For a different version of this, see 1893
1889 The First Blush of Spring - Capri
1890 The Sunny South...
1890 Phaedra (long title) The second of two showings
1891 A Summer Song...
1891 A Garland of Roses The first of three showings
1891 Spirit of the Crystal The second of two showings
1892 Au Jardin Hotel du Cygne...
1892 A Garland of Roses The second of three showings
1892 A Song of the Greek Isles
1892 Princess Scheherazade The second of two showings
1892 An Avenging Angel
1892 Andromeda Abandoned
1892 Daffodils
1892 Toadstool
1893 The Flight of Aurora
Definitely not the same painting as the one exhibited 1889
1893 The Chariot of Venus
by 1894 Spirit of the East Wind also known as Ghoul of the Shipwreck
Not exhibited as far as I know
1894 A Garland of Roses The third of three showings
1894 Lavinia
1895 Lorelei (full title) The second of two showings
Then nothing until:
1901 Sunset in the Marshes, Rhos Neigr Anglesea
1901 The Rose Garden, Clarens Lake Geneva
1910-17 as Castles in the Air
1925 The River Dee at Llangollen
AN EXTRA LIST of paintings sold at auction in recent decades, with titles I didn’t recognise.
Until I have evidence to the contrary, I’m assuming that they are in the list above, but with the original titles Isabel gave them when she exhibited them or referred to them in Memorabilia. It’s even possible, I guess, that two of them, or even all four, are the same painting!
DANCING GIRL RESTING
DANCING QUEEN 1888
PORTRAIT OF GIRL IN EASTERN COSTUME
RESTING GRECIAN GIRL DANCER
According to details in the various sales catalogues, Isabel had signed all the paintings – as she usually did – though only the painting called ‘dancing queen’ was dated. I found the sales details on the web but there were no pictures.
FINALLY, ISABEL’S ILLUSTRATION WORK
There’s very little of it - it did not chime with the view Isabel had of herself as a painter of ‘high art’ subjects (scripture, literature, myth, historical events) in a ‘high art’ style. The illustrations she did do were, I think, favours for friends. Two were reproductions of works Isabel had already exhibited as full-size paintings.
1885: 3rd edition of Chandos Leigh Hunt’s Private Instructions on the Science and Art of Organic Magnetism by Chandos Leigh Hunt (later Wallace). Published London: G Wilson. Isabel’s illustrations don’t appear in either of the first two editions.
Thanks are due to Vivienne Roberts and Leslie Price of the College of Psychic Studies, who told me about the book and Isabel’s contribution to its 3rd edition.
1894: three illustrations to editions of the occult magazine Unknown World:
Avenging Angel
Spirit of the Crystal
Spirit of the East Wind
1902: frontispiece to A Book of Mystery and Vision, poems by A E Waite. Published London: Philip Wellby 1902, limited edition of 250 copies. Isabel chose to illustrate the poem on p12. Roger Wright found the book on the web via archive.org and you can see Isabel’s illustration there; but actual copies of the original book are very rare - the only one we could locate in the UK was at Cambridge University, not even the British Library had one.
SALLY DAVIS
Copyright 16 October 2019
Contact me about this list especially if you think you own one of the art works on it:
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