- Emily Farmer
Emily Farmer (
25 July ,1826 ,London -8 May ,1905 ,Portchester ) was an English watercolour painter.She was one of three children of John Biker Farmer, who worked for the East India Company, and his wife Frances Ann (nee Frost). She was home-educated and instructed in art by her brother
Alexander Farmer , a genre painter.She initially painted miniatures, exhibiting two at the
Royal Academy in 1847 and 1849, but from 1850 specialised in genre paintings, many of children in rustic surroundings. "Kitty's Breakfast" (1883), a picture of a girl in a cottage kitchen pouring a saucer of milk for a kitten, is typical of her style. This, along with "In doubt" (1881), is held at theVictoria and Albert Museum . [ [http://www.vam.ac.uk/images/image/32142-popup.html In doubt, Museum no. D.395-1905] , V&A collections online]Other well-known works include "Deceiving Granny" (1860), "The Primrose Seller" (1867), "The ABC Class" (1863), "The Undecided Purchaser" (1864), and "The Listener" (1872).
In 1854 she was elected a member of the New Society of Painters in Water Colours to whose exhibitions she sent ninety-six paintings over a fifty year period. She also showed works at the Liverpool Academy and the
Royal Scottish Society of Painters in Watercolour .Over this period she lived at Portchester House, Portchester, Hampshire, where she died in 1905. She is buried in St Mary's churchyard, Portchester.
References
*B. S. Long, "Farmer, Emily (1826–1905)", rev. Charlotte Yeldham, "Oxford Dictionary of National Biography", Oxford University Press, 2004 [http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/33080 accessed 8 Aug 2007]
Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.
