Ellen Melicent Cobden

Cobden in the painting Green and Violet, Mrs. Walter Sickert by James McNeill Whistler, held at the Fogg Museum, Massachusetts[1]

Ellen 'Nellie' Millicent Ashburner Sickert (née Cobden, 18 August 1848– 4 September 1914),[2] was a British writer, campaigner and suffragist.

Life

Cobden was born Ellen Millicent Ashburner Cobden in 1848 in Manchester, Lancashire.[3] Her parents were Richard Cobden, radical MP and leader of the Anti-Corn Law League, and his Welsh wife Catherine Anne Williams.[4] She had four sisters and a brother. All the children were all encouraged to develop a strong civic consciousness from a young age.[5][6]

Cobden was formally educated at Miss Jeffreson’s School in Brighton.[7] In 1856, when she was just seven years old, her 15-year old brother Richard Cobden died of scarlet fever whilst studying at a German boarding school.[7]

After the death of her father in 1865,[4] Cobden was granted an annuity of £250 a year from the Cobden Tribute Fund. This had been established by family friends as an investment trust for Cobden's widow and her daughters and had raised over £25,000. Her mother died in April 1877.[7]

Cobden could afford to travel as a young woman and visited Algeria in North Africa during the 1870s.[8]

Cobden married the painter Walter Richard Sickert (1860–1942)[1] in 1885 at the Marylebone Registry Office. She was 11 years his senior.[9] They spent their honeymoon in Dieppe, France.[10] Her husband commissioned his friend and artist James McNeill Whistler to paint two portraits of her around the time of the marriage, titled Arrangement in Violet and Pink: Mrs Walter Sickert and Green and Violet: Portrait of Mrs Walter Sickert.[3] She was also painted by Jacques Emile Blanche.[11]

Cobden financially supported her husbands own art career,[3] until she discovered in 1896 that he had been unfaithful to her for the duration of their marriage.[2] They lived mostly apart during the 1890s, with Cobden spending her time abroad in Venice, Italy, and Fluellen, Switzerland. The couple divorced in February 1900.[3]

She changed her name by deed poll from Ellen Melicent Ashburner Cobden Sickert to Ellen Melicent Cobden in 1913.[3] Cobden died of cancer just a year later, in 1914.[7]

Politics

Cobden supported the Irish Home Rule movement through membership of the English Home Rule Union[12] and letter writing campaigns to The Times. She joined the South Africa Conciliation Committee in 1900.[7]

Cobden was also a supporter of women's suffrage. She donated funds to the Women’s Social and Political Union (WSPU).[13] In 1910, she participated, alongside her sister Anne Cobden-Sanderson, in the Women’s Suffrage Procession, organized by the Women’s Freedom League.[13] When Anne stood trial and was imprisoned for two months for her suffragette activities, Ellen and another sister Jane Cobden celebrated her release over dinner at the Savoy Hotel.[7]

Writing

In 1879, she wrote the poem “The Rights of Women".[7]

Under the pseudonym Miles Amber she published "Winstons – A story in three parts" in 1902. The novel was about the tragic experiences in society of two daughters of a Sussex farmer.[2] The novel was influenced by her political views and the views of her wider family.[14] It was dedicated to her sister Jane.

Under her own name she published the semi-autobiographical work "Sylvia Saxon – Episodes in a Life" in 1914. The book centred around a spoilt heiress struggling with marital difficulties and social questions[2] and included a fictional depiction of the Cobden family home of Dunford House, near Heyshott, West Sussex.[15] The Spectator reviewed the book, stating that “the writer's gifts of intuition and of observation are remarkable”.[16]

References

  1. ^ a b "Green and Violet: Mrs. Walter Sickert | Harvard Art Museums". Harvard Art Museums. Retrieved 13 November 2024.
  2. ^ a b c d Kemp, Sandra; Mitchell, Charlotte; Trotter, David (2005) [1997], "Cobden, Ellen", The Oxford Companion to Edwardian Fiction, Oxford University Press, doi:10.1093/acref/9780198117605.001.0001, ISBN 978-0-19-811760-5, retrieved 13 November 2024
  3. ^ a b c d e "Ellen Millicent Sickert". Whistler Paintings. Retrieved 13 November 2024.
  4. ^ a b Taylor, Miles (2004). "Cobden, Richard (1804–1865), manufacturer and politician". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/5741. Retrieved 13 November 2024. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)
  5. ^ Richardson, Sarah (2013). The Political Worlds of Women: Gender and Politics in Nineteenth Century Britain. Routledge. pp. 31–32. ISBN 978-0-415-82566-5.
  6. ^ Howe, Anthony (25 February 2010). The Letters of Richard Cobden: Volume II: 1848-1853. Oxford University Press. p. 55. ISBN 978-0-19-157255-5.
  7. ^ a b c d e f g Hurley, Ann. "The Cobdens". Hurley Skidmore History. Retrieved 13 November 2024.
  8. ^ Cherry, Deborah (12 November 2012). Beyond the Frame: Feminism and Visual Culture, Britain 1850 -1900. Routledge. p. 69. ISBN 978-1-135-09483-6.
  9. ^ Baron, Wendy (1 January 2006). Sickert: Paintings and Drawings. Yale University Press. p. 134. ISBN 978-0-300-11129-3.
  10. ^ "The life of artist Walter Sickert: Artistic errand boy who went on to give tips to Churchill". Ham & High. 10 March 2013. Retrieved 13 November 2024.
  11. ^ "Jacques Emile Blanche (1861-1942), Portrait of a lady, traditionally identified as Ellen Millicent Cobden (Mrs Walter Sickert)". Christie's. Retrieved 13 November 2024.
  12. ^ Howe, Anthony (1997). Free Trade and Liberal England, 1846-1946. Clarendon Press. p. 133. ISBN 978-0-19-820146-5.
  13. ^ a b Crawford, Elizabeth (2 September 2003). The Women's Suffrage Movement: A Reference Guide 1866-1928. Routledge. p. 637. ISBN 978-1-135-43401-4.
  14. ^ Morgan, Simon (15 May 2017). Rethinking Nineteenth-Century Liberalism: Richard Cobden Bicentenary Essays. Routledge. ISBN 978-1-351-90361-5.
  15. ^ "Dunford House, Heyshott, West Sussex". British Listed Buildings. Retrieved 13 November 2024.
  16. ^ "Sylvia Saxon. By Ellen Melicent Cobden. (T. Fisher Unwin. 6s.)—The » 29 Aug 1914 » The Spectator Archive". The Spectator Archive. Retrieved 13 November 2024.