Mary Forster Explained

Emma Judith Mary Forster
Birth Date:1853 12, df=yes
Nationality:British
Field:Painting

(Emma Judith) Mary Forster (1853–1885) was a British water-colour painter.

Life

Forster was born on 6 December 1853. She was the daughter of Thomas Barton Watkin Forster and Emma Stewart (born Galbraith), a landscape-painter, of Holt Manor, Bradford-on-Avon, Wiltshire. Her father was an amateur painter who had exhibited since 1859[1] and he and his daughter would go on sketching trips to locations that included France and Wales. Forster exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1876, 1878 and 1880.[2]

In 1884 she became an associate of the Royal Institute of Painters in Water Colours. On 3 June 1884 she married Samuel Hill Smith Lofthouse who was a barrister who went on to be an honorary secretary to the Bar Committee and an assistant recorder.[3] She only briefly exhibited under her married name as she died on 2 May 1885 in Lower Halliford on the Thames during childbirth. Her brief career was marked by an exhibition of 26 of her works later that summer[1] and a brief obituary in the Dictionary of National Biography.[4]

Notes and References

  1. Book: Roget, John Lewis . A History of the "Old Water-Colour" Society . . 1891 . 2 . London . 426 . en . 59510884 . https://web.archive.org/web/20160303235833/http://www.forgottenbooks.com/readbook_text/A_History_of_the_Old_Water-Colour_v2_1400042310/435 . 3 March 2016 . dead . ForgottenBooks.com.
  2. Web site: Mallalieu . Huon . 23 September 2004 . Forster [married name Lofthouse], (Emma Judith) Mary (1853–1885), watercolour painter ]. subscription . 13 May 2024 . . en . 10.1093/ref:odnb/16932.
  3. [s:Men-at-the-Bar/Lofthouse, Samuel Hill Smith|Samuel Hill Smith]
  4. Lofthouse, Mary. 34.