Her Royal Highness the Princess Louise Duchess of Argyll
Other names: Marchioness of Lorne
Born 18 March 1848
Died 3 December 1939
Active: 1863 - 1897
Country of birth and death: England
Sculptor
She was the sixth child of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert. Louise was taught by the sculptor, Mary Thornycroft and later by Joseph Edgar Boehm. In 1863 she enrolled at the National Art Training School, Kensington but her duties as the queen's social secretary interfered with her studies.
During the 1870s and 1880s Princess Louise was extensively involved with the art world. She exhibited at the Royal Academy, the Society of Painters in Watercolour, and the Grosvenor Gallery. Louise greatly admired the work of James Whistler and commissioned Edward Godwin to design her studio at Kensington Palace. Amongst her more important works were the seated marble statue of Queen Victoria (1890–93; Kensington Gardens, London), a portrait statue of Queen Victoria, McGill University, Montreal (1890); the memorial to Prince Henry of Battenberg (1897; Whippingham church, Isle of Wight) and the South African War ‘colonial soldiers’ memorial (1904; St Paul's Cathedral, London).
She was one of the female sculptors that the Royal Society of British Sculptors felt might be included in the 1908 Franco-British exhibition [13 January 1908, Royal Society of British Sculptors: Minutes of Council Meetings, no.I].
Wealth at death: £239,260 18s. 6d.
Probate date: 7 February 1940
Works
Dates are usually the year a work was exhibited so may differ from date of production.
New entries have been made each time a work was exhibited. Click here for more information.
Reduction from Her Statue of Her Majesty the Queen, Erected in Kensington Gardens
The Queen
1897 (Presumed)
Exhibitions, Meetings, Awards and other Events
Exhibited at The Seventy-First Autumn Exhibition at the Rooms of the Society, New Street (Royal Birmingham Society of Artists), 1897
'The Queen'
Exhibited at Corporation of Manchester Art Gallery, Fifteenth Autumn Exhibition, 1897
'Reduction from Her Statue of Her Majesty the Queen, Erected in Kensington Gardens'
Exhibited at The Exhibition of the Royal Academy of Arts (Summer Exhibition), 1768-
1868 - 1874
Exhibited 3 time, three works (all portraits).
Exhibited at The Royal Scottish Academy Exhibition, 1826-
1875
Exhibited at the annual exhibition 1 time: 1875 (1 work).
Exhibited at Autumn exhibition of modern pictures in oil and water-colours: the twenty-seventh (Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool), 1897
1897
H.M.H. The Queen (cat. no. 1341, reduction of statue, not for sale).
Sources
Autumn exhibition of modern pictures in oil and water-colours: the twenty-seventh, 1897 Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool
1897
pp. 44-47.
Catalogue of the Fifteenth Autumn Exhibition, 1897
1897
Cat. No. 411, p. 43
Oxford Dictionary of National Biography
2004
Mark Stocker, ‘Louise, Princess, duchess of Argyll (1848–1939)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, Sept 2004; online edn, Jan 2008 [http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/34601, accessed 16 Aug 2009]
Royal Society of British Sculptors. Minutes of Council Meetings No. 1, 1905-1913
19 May 1913
13 January 1908.
Citing this record
'Her Royal Highness the Princess Louise Duchess of Argyll', Mapping the Practice and Profession of Sculpture in Britain and Ireland 1851-1951, University of Glasgow History of Art and HATII, online database 2011 [http://sculpture.gla.ac.uk/view/person.php?id=msib5_1231962133, accessed 01 Jun 2023]
