Five O'Clock Tea, a painting sold for 400 pounds in 1874, established Louise Jopling as a participant in the competitive Victorian art market. Born in Manchester in 1843, she navigated a professional landscape defined by gender discrimination while securing commissions for portraits of financiers, actresses, and titled sitters throughout a career spanning several decades.
Artistic Training and Early Success
Born Louise Jane Goode, she moved to Paris in the late 1860s to study under Charles Joshua Chaplin and Alfred Stevens. Her early exhibition history included the Paris Salon and Royal Academy shows. Following the death of her first husband, Frank Romer, in 1872, she married the artist Joseph Middleton Jopling in 1874. Her works, including Five Sisters of York and A Modern Cinderella, reached international audiences at the Philadelphia Exposition and the Paris Exposition.
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Jopling operated within a restrictive institutional environment. In 1883, she lost a portrait commission to Sir John Everett Millais, who received a significantly higher fee for the same project. Despite such hurdles, she became a member of the Society of Women Artists in 1880 and the Royal Society of Portrait Painters in 1891. In 1901, she and Lucy Kemp-Welch became the first women admitted to the Royal Society of British Artists.
Social and Intellectual Circles
Operating from a Chelsea studio at 28 Beaufort Street, Jopling maintained a professional network that included Oscar Wilde, James McNeill Whistler, and Ellen Terry. Her home became a hub for artistic discourse, famously hosting an exchange between Wilde and Whistler in 1883. She also modeled for artists, most notably for portraits by Millais and Whistler, the former of which received significant public attention.
Advocacy and Education
After her second husband died in 1884, she married George W. Rowe in 1887 but retained the name Jopling. She opened a private painting school for women, where she campaigned for students to work with live models, bypassing Royal Academy limitations. Her broader social engagement included roles as a vice-president of the Healthy and Artistic Dress Union and support for the National Union of Women's Suffrage Societies.
Fast facts
- Born: 1843, Manchester
- Died: 1933
- Burial place: Chesham Bois Burial Ground
- Notable work: Five O'Clock Tea
- Key associations: Society of Women Artists, Royal Society of Portrait Painters
- Autobiography: Twenty Years of My Life
- Primary studio location: 28 Beaufort Street, Chelsea
Questions readers ask
Did Louise Jopling encounter gender bias in her career?
Yes. In 1883, she lost a portrait commission for which she sought 150 guineas to Sir John Everett Millais, who was paid 1000 guineas for the same assignment.
What was her role in art education?
She founded her own school for women and advocated for the right of female students to paint from live models, a practice restricted by the Royal Academy at the time.
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