Lucy M. Gipps (1826-1898), Victorian Watercolourist
Keswick Museum’s collection of paintings by Lucy M. Gipps, an amateur artist from Crosthwaite, reflects how the Lake District was a vibrant centre of artistic inspiration in the 19th century. The daughter of a prominent local churchman, she spent decades capturing some of the Lake District’s most iconic locations in pencil and watercolour.
A devotee of famed polymath John Ruskin, Gipps heeded his call to “go to Nature in all singleness of heart . . . rejecting nothing, selecting nothing, and scorning nothing” with her artwork.
Druid Circle by L. M. Gipps. Dated September 13th, 1855.
About The Keswick Album
Lucy Gipps compiled her ‘Keswick Album’, containing dozens of watercolour paintings and pencil sketches, between the 1850s and 1870s. Having started painting in her twenties or thirties, she tirelessly practiced her craft – seemingly without formal instruction – for over thirty years.
Her paintings, sometimes produced daily during the summer months, reveal the Lake District’s most picturesque locations as they were in the late 1800s. Yet, it is clear that Gipps was striving to go beyond painting pretty or technically detailed landscapes: she was attempting to record her own unique perspective of Keswick.
From the immense dimensions of the fells, to the light-bending depths and reflections of streams and rivers, to her delicate impressions of every branch and leaf, Gipps sought to capture — in the words of Ruskin — the natural ‘truths’ of the world as she saw it.
Falcon Crag by L. M. Gipps. Dated June 16th 1863.
In the 1870s, Gipps was a member of the Keswick Sketching Club, a possible precursor to the pioneering Keswick School of Industrial Arts.
As well as having some members in common, both the Keswick Sketching Club and the School of Industrial Arts were deeply influenced by the ideas of John Ruskin. Each shared the founding principle that, if made accessible to all, art had the power to improve the welfare of society. The Sketching Club had as many female members (like Gipps) as it did male, whilst the School taught art to local workers free of charge.
High Hill and The Greta by L. M. Gipps.
Lucy’s artistic journey took place during a revolution of how people thought about art education, led by John Ruskin.
Ruskin, a famous Victorian critic and author, believed that anyone with enough time, effort and guidance could master the basics of painting. Gipps’ paintings of Keswick may be some of the earliest examples of any artist – male or female – putting his innovative ‘how-to’ methods into practice.
Gipps met Ruskin in 1875 when he was invited to meet the Keswick Sketching Club and critique their progress. Although he is remembered for his brutally honest opinions, Ruskin was quite complimentary of Lucy’s efforts.
Friars Crag by L. M. Gipps. Dated July 20th, 1863.
About Lucy Gipps
Born in Canterbury in 1826, Lucy Maria Gipps moved to Crosthwaite in the 1840s. Her paternal ancestry included churchmen like her father, but also soldiers, politicians and entrepreneurs – even two of the founders of Lloyds Bank. Many relatives found fame and fortune across the ‘New World’ as the British Empire reached its zenith: from Canada to the Caribbean, South America and Australia.
It is likely that, despite her family’s wealth and opportunities, Lucy was excluded from the world of education and work as a woman. Nevertheless, she seems to have lived her life and pursued her passions more freely than most. As a wealthy heiress unburdened by marriage, Lucy spent decades living and painting amongst the very landscapes that other creative spirits dreamed all their lives to visit. She died in London in 1898.
Crosthwaite Vicarage by L. M. Gipps.
This project was created by Grace, one of our volunteers. If you would like to volunteer at Keswick Museum, let us know!