ISABEL DE STEIGER’S ART WORKS: what and where she exhibited
AUGUST 2017 – comments by Sally Davis
This is a boring but necessary file of the raw data. When I went in search of paintings by Isabel, I looked through catalogues of the major exhibition venues in years from the early 1870s to the early 1900s. Google pointed me at some venues used by Isabel, that I’d never have heard of otherwise. Google also found me a few reviews of her work; usually just a pithy phrase, often without naming the painting! 1900 is a crucial date in Isabel’s life as an art professional: in August of that year, a fire destroyed all the paintings she still had in her possession and all her preparatory work. I only know for sure of one work which she began after that date.
I’m sure the lists below are not complete. Entire galleries will be missing because I haven’t discovered yet that Isabel exhibited in their shows. It’s likely, too, that Isabel showed more works after 1900 than I’ve managed to come across.
UPDATE 2025 the lists are a bit more complete than before! I’ve been working through the catalogues of exhibitions at the Dudley Gallery, the 19th Century Art Society, and exhibitions at the Walker Art Gallery up to 1926.
LAYOUT
The exhibition galleries are in alphabetical order; which means that by far the most important is at the end – the Walker Art Gallery in Liverpool.
THE BASIC ART DICTIONARY SOURCES were a good place to start but the entries contained errors and were not complete. Isabel would have been very annoyed at some of the things they said about her!
Dictionary of British Artists 1880-1940 compiled by J Johnson and A Greutzner. Antique Collectors’ Club 1976 p145.
Dictionary of British Art. Volume IV: Victorian Painters I: The Text. By Christopher Wood. Published Antique Collectors’ Club 1995: p138.
THE INDIVIDUAL GALLERIES which, as I say, is almost certainly incomplete.
BRITISH FINE ART GALLERY
1882
I couldn’t find a catalogue of this exhibition, so the only information I have is from a review which doesn’t name the painting.
The Artist and Journal of Home Culture volume 3 1882 p207 issue of 1 July 1882 had a review of the first exhibition at this gallery, whose rooms were at 200 Regent Street. It was a new addition to London’s smaller art venues, intended by its directors to be open for the display and sale of art throughout the year. The review didn’t name any of the paintings in a show which the reviewer felt
had “a leaven of more or less meritorious” work amongst a lot of mediocre or even bad stuff. The reviewer mentioned Isabel’s one painting in the show, as one of the exhibition’s best, “forcible in colour and French in technique”. It was a “single figure” and I’m not going to speculate about which of Isabel’s works it might have been; it might all too easily be one I’ve never heard of.
DUDLEY GALLERY
There’s nothing in Memorabilia about these two and I came across them by accident while going through catalogues in search of GD member Mary Eliza Haweis.
1880
8th Exhibition of works of art in black and white. Dudley Gallery Winter 1880 at its usual venue, the Egyptian Hall Piccadilly. Catalogue printed by Strangeways and Sons of Tower St, Upper St Martin’s Lane. In the list of exhibitors: p35. In the list of works:
p25 555 Priestess of Isis – A Study. Though most works had a sale price printed next to them, this one didn’t.
14th Winter Exhibition of Cabinet Pictures in Oil. Dudley Gallery November 1880 same place same printer. In the list of works:
p21 428 The Priestess of Isis; sale price £8.
Isabel was working on her Cleopatra set of pictures at this time and these two works were probably part of her preparations for them.
Isabel didn’t exhibit any works at the Dudley Gallery in 1881. Apparently there were exhibitions at the Dudley Gallery during 1882; but the National Art Library does not have any catalogues from that year in its collection so I haven’t been able to check whether Isabel was an exhibitor that year. During 1882 the Dudley Gallery was taken over by the (then) Institute of Painters in Watercolours. From 1883 the venue for the Dudley Gallery was the same – the Egyptian Hall Piccadilly – but there were no more exhibitions of works in black and white, and a slight name-change to:
DUDLEY GALLERY ART SOCIETY
17th Exhibition of Cabinet Pictures in Oil. Dudley Gallery Art Society 1883. In the list of works:
p11 60 Isubar vide Whyte Melville’s Sarchedon; sale price £8/8.
Exhibition of Cabinet Pictures in Oil. Dudley Gallery Art Society 1885. For the first time, the Society had members, who were listed at the front of the catalogue. It’s not clear what benefits membership offered but perhaps it included better space on the walls; Isabel was not a member this year. In the list of works:
p16 140 The Lost Pleiad – Study for a Large Picture; although this might have been part of a work-in-progress, the painting was for sale at £20.
Winter Exhibition of Oil Pictures. Dudley Gallery Art Society 1888. On p5 in the list of members: Isabel at 3 Woodstock Road Bedford Park. In the list of exhibits:
p9 32 The Unveiling of the Jungfrau; sale price £15
p15 155 A Quiet Look-Out; sale price £7/7.
In the index on p18 Isabel was also credited with catalogue number 149; but in the catalogue itself, that work is clearly by Albert Stevens.
I think some exhibition catalogues are missing from the National Art Library’s volume covering 1883 to 1893. Isabel didn’t show any works in the exhibitions whose catalogues the NAL does have, after 1888.
GROSVENOR GALLERY
No Grosvenor Gallery catalogue give prices for paintings which were for sale; interested buyers were asked to contact the gallery for further information.
In Memorabilia p159 Isabel mentioned some paintings in pastel that she showed at the Grosvenor Gallery: Phaedra; her portrait of Patience Sinnett; her portrait of Mabel Collins; and The Spirit of the Crystal. Works at the National Art Library indicate that there were two exhibitions with pastels in them at the Gallery, in late 1888 and early 1889. I haven’t been able to find any copies of the catalogues of the first of those two exhibitions. I seem to be missing one of the four paintings Isabel mentions – one of the two portraits - so I suppose it was in the late 1888 show.
1889
I did find a catalogue of the second of the two: Grosvenor Gallery 2nd Pastel Exhibition 1889. In the list of exhibitors: p118. And in the list of paintings, just the one item:
p67 302 described only as Portrait.
1890
Grosvenor Gallery First Exhibition of the Society of British Pastellists
The Society had only just been founded. The catalogue’s title page had a list of its current members; Isabel’s name was not on it. In the list of exhibitors p96. In the list of works:
p52 225 Phaedra. With a sub-title (Isabel’s quote marks) “The Pale Dark Queen with Passion in her Eyes”
p80 361 The Jewel with The Spirit of Diamonds.
I’m not sure whether catalogue number 361 is The Spirit of the Crystal, or some other painting altogether.
As MANCHESTER ROYAL INSTITUTION which turns into the city art gallery in 1883
1880
I couldn’t find a catalogue for the 1880 exhibition but I did find a review of it, in which a work by Isabel was mentioned. As there were over one thousand items in the show, even a mention for Isabel’s painting was doing pretty well.
The Academy volume 18 1880 number 437 issue of 18 September1880 p209: review of the exhibition at the Royal Manchester Institution. Isabel was showing one of her ?four ‘Cleopatra’ paintings; unfortunately, there’s no clue here as to which one!
The Bazaar, The Exchange and Mart issue of 22 September 1880 p310 included it in a list of the exhibition’s “notable works”. This report did note that the painting had recently been shown in London; but without any clue as to which cleopatra it was.
As MANCHESTER CITY ART GALLERY
I note from the catalogue to the 4th Autumn Exhibion 1886 that exhibitors were limited to a maximum of three works, and that works of “moderate size” would be given preference over larger paintings. Published Manchester: Henry Blacklock and Co of Albert Sq.
1884
Corporation of Manchester Art Gallery, Royal Institution 2nd Autumn Exhibition. Manchester: Blacklock and Co. List of exhibitors p79. List of works:
p14 128 £35 oil Eureka! Eureka!
1890
Corporation of Manchester Art Gallery, Royal Institution 8th Autumn Exhibition. Manchester: Henry Blacklock and Co of Albert Square. In the list of exhibitors: p59. In the list of works:
p22 239 £10/10 oil The Sunny South (Lyme Regis Bay).
1891
Corporation of Manchester Art Gallery, Royal Institution 9th Autumn Exhibition. Manchester: Blacklock and Co. In the list of exhibitors p53. In the list of works:
p39 466 £10 oil A Summer Song (Study at Boscastle).
1892
Corporation of Manchester Art Gallery, Royal Institution 10th Autumn Exhibition. Manchester: Blacklock. List of exhibitors p59. List of works:
p34 362 £50 oil A Song of the Greek Isles
p44 531 £100 oil The Princess Scheherazade.
19th CENTURY ART SOCIETY
If it hadn’t been for google I wouldn’t have known about this particular venue. The Society seems to have come and gone in only a few years. There is information on its founder, the architect John Sulman (1849-1934) at adb.edu.au, the Australian DNB; he emigrated in 1885 and the Society was left in the hands of its two secretaries, Edward Freeman and R S Marriott. The Society took over some rooms that were already used as galleries, at 9 Conduit Street. It was a membership society, with yearly subscriptions payable in advance, though open to both amateur and professional painters; and you had to be a member to show any work in its exhibitions. The exhibitions were laid out with oil paintings in the large gallery and listed first in the catalogue; and works in watercolours and other media in the gallery described in the catalogues as ‘west’. Occasionally sculptures were exhibited, but I think there was not much room for them.
The National Art Library at the V&A has catalogues from the inaugural exhibition in December 1883 to that of autumn 1890, though it’s not a complete set: the exhibitions of summer 1884 and autumn 1887 are missing from it. The set also doesn’t include catalogues for spring 1886; spring and autumn 1889; and summer 1890; I’m not sure whether exhibitions were actually held at those times.
Source for membership details: Academy Sketches 1892 – after the Society had been going about 9 years - p242 quoted at royalacademy.org.uk on its page on the 19th Century Art Society.
1884
Isabel was not a member of the Society at the outset. She joined it in time to show at least one work in the exhibition of summer 1884. The catalogue for that exhibition is one of those that the V&A doesn’t have, but Isabel’s painting Zumurruk was mentioned in a review in The Artist issue of 1 July 1884 p201. The reviewer thought the colour in the painting was “well chosen”.
19th Century Art Society Autumn Exhibition 1884. List of members p48. List of works in the large gallery:
P6 32 £10/10 An English Venice: Study in Lyme Regis.
1885
19th Century Art Society Spring Exhibition 1885. Members’ list p47. List of works in the large gallery:
p19 187 £6/6 The Wood Syren
p22 228 £16/6 Daffodils and Pansies.
In the margin of the catalogue now at the V&A, someone wrote a note in pencil arrowed towards exhibit 228: “to [one word, looks like ‘hard’] and cut out. Colour not bad. bad (sic the lack of capital letter) habit of black outlining.”
List of works in watercolour:
p38 409 £6/6 Outside the Village: Steyning.
19th Century Art Society Summer Exhibition 1885. Members’ list p52. List of works in the large gallery:
p7 53 £25 The Enchanted Sleep
p10 83 £100 Cleopatra’s Despair in the Temple of Isis.
19th Century Art Society Autumn Exhibition 1885. Members’ list: p49. List of works in the large gallery:
P5 28 Portrait of Miss Mary Tynte Potter; which wasn’t for sale
p18 172 £100 The Sorceress.
The exhibition was reviewed in the Saturday Review but the reviewer was hard put to find in the 400 works any “that merit more than a shuddering glance”. The reviewer picked out Isabel’s two works, saying that they “possess merit”. However, he or she went on to make a criticism of The Sorceress that I’ve seen made about other works by her: that the “flesh...is hard and crude, and the detail full of ill-distributed accents”.
Source for the review: Saturday Review of Politics, Literature, Science and Art published London: J W Parker and Son. Volume 60 1885 issue of 7 November 1885 p612.
1886
19th Century Art Society Exhibition Catalogue Summer 1886. Members’ list p55. List of works in the large gallery:
P22 224 £6/6 Strada Tiberio Capri
p24 253 £7/7 Villa Pompeiana Capri.
19th Century Art Society Exhibition Catalogue Autumn 1886. Members’ list p49. List of works in the large gallery:
p13 112 £8/8 An Odalisque: Cairo
p21 204 £12/12 A Lonely Beggar in a Lonely Road: Capri.
1887
19th Century Art Society Spring Exhibition 1887. Members’ list p50. List of works in the large gallery:
P10 85 £10/10 The Fairy Syren (sic) of the Water Lilies
p13 116 £90 Harmonia
p20 205 £5/5 L’Amour de la Nuit - La Lune - Sur la Terrasse de l’Hotel; Impression du Voyage. As this has only one price I assume it’s one painting, not four.
Isabel’s painting Harmonia caught the eye of the reviewer in The British Architect magazine, who described it as having “more decorative feeling” than the painting he or she had just mentioned.
Source:
The British Architect issue of 25 February 1887 p149.
19th Century Art Society Summer Exhibition 1887. Members’ list p57. List of works in the large gallery:
p57 271 £9/9 Old Court, Daventry, Northamptonshire.
Isabel also had two works in the west gallery though neither of them were watercolours:
p49 539 £6/6 The Rock Syren Singing the Storm Song; which was a charcoal drawing
p50 540 £5/5 Head of Beatrice; which was a study in charcoal and red chalk.
The V&A set didn’t have the catalogue of the 19th Century Art Society’s Autumn Exhibition in 1887 but Isabel did show at least one painting in it. She called it The Princess Scheherazade Beginning her Story to the King Sharizar and it was given quite a few words in a review in the Building News and Engineering Journal: “The attire of the beautiful princess in her long-flowing black hair, adorned by beaded necklaces and jewels, is not wanting in oriental splendour, though the whole is in a subdued tone. The flesh shadows are, however, too brown and thick, and the handling rough and uncertain”.
Source:
Building News and Engineering Journal issue of 4 November 1887 p678. Despite the criticism, the reviewer judged Isabel’s work as one of the few pictures worthy of notice, describing the show as a whole as “full of amateur work”.
1888
19th Century Art Society Spring Exhibition 1888. Members’ list p46. List of works in the large gallery:
p11 91 £105 The Priestess of the Temple of Isis demands the password from the Neophyte, a Roman lady, before her admission to the sacred precincts. (In italics, not sure whether they are Isabel’s): Egyptian Initiation, Roman Period.
P24 242* £5/5 A Fidgetty Little Model, Capri: Winter Sketch.
About the asterisk; it’s definitely in the catalogue. Asterisks in the catalogues were usually confined to the members’ list and indicated someone who was a member but didn’t have anything in this particular show. Perhaps Isabel sent details of the painting to the Society but then changed her mind about exhibiting it.
19th Century Art Society Summer Exhibition 1888. Members’ list p57. List of works in the large gallery:
p26 275 £6/6 The Sultan and his Sultana
Perhaps this was part of the preparation work for Isabel’s The Princess Scheherazade...
277 Portrait of Mrs Frederic Gardner; which was not for sale.
Mr Frederic Gardner was the future GD member Frederick Leigh Gardner.
19th Century Art Society Autumn Exhibition 1888. Members’ list p46. List of works in the large gallery:
p5 20 £5 The Privileged Puss
If the picture was of a pet cat (I’ve never seen the picture, of course), it’s unique in Isabel’s body of work.
P16 155 £5 The Garden of the Hotel Roy, Clarens, Switzerland.
1889
19th Century Art Society Summer Exhibition 1889. Members’ list p49. List of works in the large gallery:
p22 227 £10/10 The Sunny South in the Shadowy North
p25 265 £36/15 An Orange Garden in Capri, in Roman Times.
1890
19th Century Art Society Spring Exhibition 1890. Members’ list p46. List of works in the large gallery:
p11 93 £2/2 A Noontide Rest (Study)
p22 217 £10 The Ferry, at the Quarry, Shrewsbury.
19th Century Art Society Autumn Exhibition 1890. Members’ list p54. List of works in the large gallery:
p12 104 £35 Coráliá (sic both those accents)
p22 231 £8/8 In the Haréem (again, sic the accent): A Dancing Girl.
In the west gallery:
p34 360 £3/3 Murky Weather: Cumberland Coast.
The catalogue for the exhibition of autumn 1890 is the last in the V&A’s set. Even the Royal Academy, researching the art galleries of London, couldn’t find any definite information about when the Society ceased to exist. The latest evidence it came across was for the Society exhibition in spring 1895. I would suppose that Isabel stopped paying the annual subscription when she left London.
Source: royalacademy.org.uk its page on the 19th Century Art Society; quoting the Morning Post 3 May 1895.
PARIS SALON
Les Peintres Britanniques dans les Salons Parisiens des Origines à 1939 by Béatrice Crespon-Halotier. Paris: L’Echelle de Jacob for the Paul Mellon Centre for Studies in British Art. 2002. I had a look in this but p490 had no entry for Isabel.
Isabel’s bête noir the ROYAL ACADEMY. I didn’t look at the individual catalogues.
Royal Academy Exhibitors from 1880 to 1904, which doesn’t list prices or whether the item was sold. Volume 1 A-D p312 just the one item:
1882 596 Mariamne.
Royal Academy Exhibitors 1905-70 E P Publishing 1977. Volume II p157 no entry for Isabel as ‘de Steiger’. Volume VI Sherr-Z published 1982 p75 no entry for Isabel as ‘Steiger, de’.
ROYAL ALBERT HALL OF ARTS AND SCIENCES
None of these catalogues had a list of exhibitors, so I might have missed some works Isabel showed at this huge venue.
1879 which I think was the first ever
RAH of Arts and Sciences Catalogue of the Exhibition of Works of Modern Artists 1879. No named printer so I suppose the RAH does its own.
In the oils section two works by Isabel:
p23 307 £15/15 Cleopatra Personating (sic) the Goddess Isis
p29 405 Portrait of Mrs Patterson; which wasn’t for sale.
There were 1010 exhibits.
1880
RAH of Arts and Sciences Catalogue of the Exhibition of Paintings, Sculpture, Architectural Drawings and Wood Carving 1880. In the section on oil paintings, two works by Isabel:
p1 9 £75 Athyrtis, the Divine Daughter of Sesostris, Showing Herself at the Gate of the Temple
p2 24 £75 The Dismissal of Hagar.
Isabel’s Athyrtis was mentioned in a review of the exhibition in Building News issue of 26 March 1880 p360, as “decorative [and] Classically rendered”.
1881
RAH of Arts and Sciences Catalogue of the Exhibition of Paintings, Sculpture, Architectural Drawings and Art Workmanship 1881. In the oils section, one work by Isabel (her quote marks):
p28 308 £35 “The Three Valkyrie Maidens - Messengers of the Gods, proclaiming from a lone rock in the Northern Ocean to the sea-birds and the fishes the death of Balder (sic) the Beautiful”.
1882
RAH of Arts and Sciences Catalogue of the Exhibition of Paintings, Sculpture, Architectural Drawings. In the oil paintings section one work by Isabel:
p19 164 £20 Semiramide.
ROYAL HIBERNIAN ACADEMY OF ARTS. I didn’t look at individual catalogues.
Royal Hibernian Academy of Arts: Index of Exihibitors 1826-1979 compiled by Ann M Stewart. Volume 1: A-G. Dublin: Manton Publishing 1986. On p210:
1877 164 £20 Mansours
1882 434 £12/12 Morning Effect
1883 73 £35 The Valkyrie Maidens
1885 98 £100 The Enchantress
1887 296 - Portrait of Miss Romola Tynte
1894 344 £15/15 A Garland of Roses
391 £15/15 Lavinia
The entries don’t make clear what media the works had been painted in.
Now known as the ROYAL INSTITUTE OF OIL PAINTERS but called the INSTITUTE OF PAINTERS IN OIL COLOURS when Isabel exhibited her one painting there.
1883-84
Institute of Painters in Oil Colours catalogue of its first exhibition, held at the Piccadilly Gallery. On pp3-4 there was a list of current members: all men, of course. There was no indication in the catalogue of which works were for sale; and no prices were printed. In the list of exhibitors: p46. In the list of works:
p35 60 The Greek Captive and her Nubian Slave.
ROYAL SCOTTISH ACADEMY. I didn’t look at individual catalogues.
Isabel was never an Academy member: The Royal Scottish Academy 1826-1916. Originally published 1917. The British Library’s copy is Kingsmead Reprints 1975: p384 Isabel isn’t listed.
The Royal Scottish Academy Exhibitors 1826-1990 editor Charles Baile de Laperrière. Volume 4: R-Z. Calne: Hilmarton Manor Press 1991. There are no indications as to whether the paintings were for sale; nor which medium they had been painted in. On p615 works by Isabel:
1883 393 Semiramis
543 The Fair Slave Enees-el-Jelees. Arabian Nights.
1884 548 The Valkyrie Maidens Proclaiming the Death of the Sun God Balder the Beautiful
1895 68 The Lorelei Maiden Singing to the Fishermen Below.
ROYAL SOCIETY OF ARTISTS BIRMINGHAM which changed its name spring 1885 to ROYAL BIRMINGHAM SOCIETY OF ARTISTS.
1883
RSA Birmingham Autumn Exhibition. In the list of exhibitors: p80. In the list of works:
p27 162 £10 Abd-el-Rahman
p32 270 £25 Semiramis
1884
RSA Birmingham Autumn Exhibition. In the list of exhibitors: p70. In the list of works:
p41 440 £20 The Veiling of Isis
p52 645 £45 The Valkyrie Maidens.
P59 799 £6/6 watercolour drawing Fireside Harmony.
1892
RBS Artists 66th Autumn Exhibition. In the list of exhibitors: p73. In the list of works:
p36 313 £7/7 oil Au Jardin Hôtel du Cygne Montreux
p64 892 £15/15 watercolour painting A Garland of Roses.
1893
RBS Artists 28th Spring Exhibition. In the list of exhibitors: p66. In the list of works:
p54 637 £10/10 The Flight of Aurora
p54 639 £10/10 The Chariot of Venus.
ROYAL SOCIETY OF BRITISH ARTISTS
Isabel was not a member of the Society - she was not in either of these two volumes: RSBA Exhibitors 1824-1892 and 1893-1910. Compiler Maurice Bradshaw, secretary general of the Federation of British Artists. Published 1973 F Lewis Publishers Ltd of The Tithe House, Leigh-on-Sea.
Exhibitors at The Royal Society of British Artists 1824-1893 and The New English Art Club 1888-1917 compiled by Jane Johnson. Antique Collectors’ Club Research Project. First printed 1975; the V&A’s copy is the reprint of 1993. On p130:
1879/80 21 £40 Cleopatra’s Deadly Resolve in the Temple of Isis
1881 500 £7 A Dancing Girl.
ST JAMES’S GALLERY, King Street
This gallery was run by I P Mendoza, whose main business was in printing and publishing. Although it also organised exhibitions of watercolour drawings, it was best known for its exhibitions of black and white.
The National Art Library has catalogues covering the early 1880s to 1901 and beyond, though it lacks catalogues from exhibitions between 1891 and 1898. Isabel exhibited in one exhibition of works in black and white; that of 1889. All works in the St James’s Gallery exhibitions were for sale, but no prices were printed in the catalogues; those considering a purchase had to apply to the Gallery for further details.
1889
p8 114 A Solitary Beggar – Street in Capri
p12 171 Demeter Leaving the Elysian Fields in Search of her Lost Child
p15 232 Boats Coming in – Walberswick.
Known in Isabel’s time as the SOCIETY OF LADY ARTISTS, now the SOCIETY OF WOMEN ARTISTS
The Society of Women Artists Exhibitors 1855-1996 editor Charles Baile de Laperrière, compiler Joanna Soden. Hilmarton Manor Press 1996. Volume 1 A-D p328:
1878 354 £16 Slave Girl of the Harem
298 £16 Consuelo
401 - Mrs Patterson
1879 768 £8 A Daughter of the Gods
1881 632 £5 Shatucha the Bedouin Girl (Egypt) ; which was a sketch
651 £8 Spanish Tambourine Girl
1887 267 £10 The First Blossom of Spring: Almond Blossom, Capri, Italy
I found some infuriating coverage of the 1878 exhibition in the Times Mon 18 March 1878 p4: a patronising report which began by noting with approval that in the 20 years since the Society was founded, women artists had come to accept that the ‘great’ subject matter of art was not and never would be their “calling”. The review was careful to include only references to paintings which fitted this belief - landscapes and flower-paintings, for example - so that Isabel’s portrait and her two works either genre or ‘great’ were not mentioned. The exhibition was at the Society’s own rooms in Great Marlborough Street. 800 works were being shown, about half the number that had been submitted for selection.
The hiatus in exhibits by Isabel at the LSA between 1881 and 1887 started as a result of a letter by Isabel published in The Artist and Journal of Home Culture issue of July 1882). On Memorabilia p109 Isabel says that the LSA refused one work she submitted, the year after the letter appeared ie 1883.
Last but most definitely not least: the WALKER ART GALLERY LIVERPOOL where Isabel felt on home ground: both as a woman born in the city, and as an artist with acquaintances on the Corporation’s Exhibition committees. The Walker was where she chose to show her very earliest works, in the early 1870s, before she even thought of herself as properly trained. In the next 25 years or so she showed more works at the Walker than anywhere else; including her only sculpture.
In the lists below, unless I say otherwise, Isabel’s exhibited works are oil paintings.
1874
4th Liverpool Autumn Exhibition of Modern Pictures in Oil and Watercolours. In the list of exhibitors and still with an address in Egypt: p47. In the list of works:
P3 6 £13/13 The Coming Squall - Meditt - Ramle Egypt
11 £11 title line left blank but there’s a quote beginning next line down:
“Basking in Heaven’s serenest light
Those groups of lovely palm trees bright”.
P12 220 £11 Philae Egypt. With a quote below, from Lalla Rookh:
“The ruined shrines and towers that seem
The relics of a splendid dream” .
1875
5th Liverpool Autumn Exhibition of Modern Pictures. In the list of exhibitors p47. In the list of works:
P13 277 £15 Hagar in the Desert
p16 342 £10/10 The Evening Meal, Ramle Egypt
p17 364 £30 Mansours Tent
p18 405 £20 On the Road to Aboukir.
1879
9th Liverpool Autumn Exhibition of Modern Pictures. In the list of exhibitors: p121. In the list of works:
p19 187 £70 Cleopatra Receiving an Unfavourable Oracle from the Priestess
of Isis
p38 518 £5/5 A Daughter of the Gods
1880
10th Liverpool Autumn Exhibition of Modern Pictures. In the list of exhibitors: p82. In the list of works:
P35 494 £125 The Princess Scheherezada (sic) daughter of the Grand Vizier, thinking of the Story She is going to relate at Night. Arabian Nights
1881
11th Liverpool Autumn Exhibition of Modern Pictures. In the list of exhibitors: p121. In the list of works:
p64 1066 £6/10 An Eastern Dancing Girl
12th Liverpool Autumn Exhibition of Modern Pictures. In the list of exhibitors: p132. In the list of works:
p23 261 £10/0 Mariamne
13th Liverpool Autumn Exhibition of Modern Pictures. In the list of exhibitors: p135. In the list of works:
P16 149 £100 The Enchantress
p80 1416 £35 The Lorelei Maiden, (Isabel’s quote marks) “Sitting on a Rock over the Whirlpool, singing to the Fishermen Below”.
1884
14th Liverpool Autumn Exhibition of Modern Pictures. In the list of exhibitors: p179. In the list of works:
P20 266 £25 A Dream of Hermes
p74 1213 £15 Nature and Art
1885
15th Liverpool Autumn Exhibition of Modern Pictures. In the list of exhibitors: p124. In the list of works:
P75 1254 £10 (Isabel’s quote marks) “Trust her not, she is fooling thee”
1886
16th Liverpool Autumn Exhibition of Modern Pictures. In the list of exhibitors: p115. In the list of works:
P12 93 £47/10 (Isabel’s quote marks) “The Valkyrie Maidens (vide Robert Buchanan’s Poem)”
p65 1071 £31/10 (Isabel’s quote marks) “The Lost Pleiad. Blind Merope - Hope Abandoned. Vide Edwin Arnold”
1887
17th Liverpool Autumn Exhibition of Modern Pictures. In the list of exhibitors: p109. In the list of works:
p66 1126 £25/10 A Legend of the Soul - Persephone Sinking into the Abyss of Hades. With this long quote:
“Persephone, wilfully straying from the Mansions of Heaven, falls under the power of the Hadean God, in other words Persephone typifying the Soul sinks into the profound depths of a material nature. Hermes Trismegistus”.
1127 £6/6 Impression de Voyage
1888
[18th] Liverpool Autumn Exhibition of Modern Pictures 1888. In the list of exhibitors: p7. In the list of works:
p51a 1261 £100 Celebration of the Mysteries.
Again there’s a long quote:
“Celebration of one of the Mysteries in the Temple of Isis. The Roman lady, having no Pass-word, is refused admittance by the Priestess. Roman Period.”
1889
19th Liverpool Autumn Exhibition of Modern Pictures. In the list of exhibitors: p135. In the list of works:
P54 in Room VI which is watercolour drawings
936 £15/15 pastel The Flight of Aurora
p43 in Room V which is all oil paintings
722 £10/10 The First Blush of Spring - Capri
1890
Missing its front cover but 20th Liverpool Autumn Exhibition of Modern Pictures. In the list of exhibitors: p122. In the list of works:
p6 4 £25 oil Phaedra Meditating on her Revenge.
With this addendum, apparently a quote from the Epic of Hades: “The Dark Pale Queen, with Passion in her Eyes”.
21st Liverpool Autumn Exhibition of Modern Pictures. Isabel was in the list of exhibitors though the page had lost its page number. In the list of works though again no page numbers have survived:
935 £15 pastel A Garland of Roses
1208 £20 pastel The Spirit of the Crystal.
1892
22nd Liverpool Autumn Exhibition of Modern Pictures, again with page numbers missing. Isabel is in the list of exhibitors. In the list of works, again with no page numbers:
172 £10 oil Daffodils
679 £25 watercolour drawing An Avenging Angel
1085 £110 oil Andromeda Abandoned
1338 £2/2 wax-clay in one of the sculpture galleries: A Toadstool.
Isabel didn’t exhibit any works at the Walker Art Gallery in the years 1893 to 1900.
1901
31st Autumn Exhibition of Modern Pictures in Oil and Watercolours. In the list of exhibitors: p127. In the list of works:
P7 in Room I which is all oil paintings
39 £6/6 The Rose Garden, Clarens, Lake of Geneva
P71 in Room VIII which is all oil paintings
1107 £8/8 Sunset in the Marshes, Rhos Neigr Anglesea
Isabel didn’t exhibit any works in 1902 or 1903.
1904
34th Autumn Exhibition of Modern Pictures in Oil and Watercolours. In the list of exhibitors: p185 as Isabelle rather than Isabel, a spelling she continued to use in the next few years (it was the spelling she had been christened with).
In the list of works:
p22 in Room II which is all oil paintings
241 £125 The Enchantress.
This was the only painting Isabel exhibited at any gallery that year. Source:
The Year’s Art 1905 p447 entry for de Steiger, “Mme Isabelle”.
1906
36th Autumn Exhibition of Modern Art. In the list of exhibitors: p108.
In the list of works:
p53 oil paintings on the Gallery staircase
984 £125 The Sibyl and Fortune Teller
“The past shall rise,
Thou shalt behold the present,
I will teach the secret of the future”. Shelley.
Isabel didn’t exhibit any works in 1907.
1908
38th Autumn Exhibition of Modern Art. In the list of exhibitors: p120.
In the list of works:
p10 Room I all oil paintings
72 £35 A Sphinx.
1909
39th Autumn Exhibition of Modern Art. In the list of exhibitors: p130.
In the list of works:
p59 Room X, all oil paintings
1196 £10 The Bridge at Bridgham Norfolk.
1910
40th Autumn Exhibition of Modern Art. In the list of exhibitors: p139.
In the list of works:
p23 Room IV all oil paintings
343 £20 Phoedra (sic). Possibly the painting Isabel had shown at the Grosvenor Gallery in 1890.
Then there were quite a few years in which Isabel didn’t show any paintings at the Walker – 1911 to 1916 – followed by two years when there were no autumn exhibitions there, due to the war.
1919
47th Autumn Exhibition of Modern Art. In the list of exhibitors: p93.
In the list of works:
p54 amongst the oil paintings on the staircase
1060 £35 Without a Wedding Garment.
The painting must illustrate Matthew 22: 1-14, the parable of the wedding guest who wore the wrong clothes.
From 1920 to 1924 Isabel didn’t show any paintings at the Walker.
1925
53rd Autumn Exhibition. In the list of exhibitors: p128.
In the list of works:
p54 amongst the oil paintings on the staircase
1058 £10 The River Dee at Llangollen.
Perhaps the sketching for this painting was done while Isabel was living in Llangollen, between 1914 and 1916.
1926
54th Autumn Exhibition. In the list of exhibitors: p154.
In the list of works:
p33 amongst the oil paintings in the vestibulle
21 £150 Castles in the Air.
Isabel’s last exhibited work, which she had been painting and repainting on and off since about 1910.
COPYRIGHT SALLY DAVIS
7 June 2018
6 November 2025
Email me, especially if you think you own one of the paintings listed in this file:
See the full list of my biographies of members of the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn at
www.wrightanddavis.co.uk
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