Louise Jane Jopling (November 16, 1843 – November 19, 1933) was a prominent Victorian artist, educator, and social campaigner. She was a pioneering professional woman in an era
when such roles were often restricted to men.Queer Places:
Chesham Bois Burial Ground, Bois Moor Rd, Chesham HP5 1SU, United Kingdom
Louise Jane Jopling (November 16, 1843 – November 19, 1933) was a prominent Victorian artist, educator, and social campaigner. She was a pioneering professional woman in an era
when such roles were often restricted to men.
Born in Manchester, Louise Jopling (née Goode) pursued an artistic career despite the gender-based limitations of the 19th century. After her first marriage took her to Paris, she studied under the portrait painter Charles Chaplin, who allowed her to perform life-class painting—a study method frequently denied to women in Victorian England.
She became a successful portrait and genre painter, exhibiting at prestigious institutions including the Royal Academy, the Grosvenor Gallery, and the Paris Salon. Her subjects included prominent cultural figures like Ellen Terry and Lillie Langtry.
Jopling was a staunch proponent of professional training for women. In the late 1880s, she founded her own art school in London, ensuring women had access to life-drawing classes.
She was an active suffragist, a member of the Women’s Tax Resistance League, and a vice-president of the United Suffragists. She also advocated for "rational dress" (less restrictive clothing) as a vice-president of the Healthy and Artistic Dress Union.
Her autobiographical work, Twenty Years of My Life, 1867–1887 (1925), provides a candid look at her professional frustrations and successes as a woman in the Victorian art world.
Louise Jopling moved in the same "aristocratic-bohemian" social circles as Oscar Wilde. Jopling’s sympathy for Wilde is often noted by historians as indicative of her progressive social views. Her social circle was vast, including figures like James McNeill Whistler, John Everett Millais, and Henry Irving. Her reaction to the news of the verdict reflects the profound shock and personal loss felt by many in London's liberal and artistic spheres when the reality of Wilde's conviction and imprisonment took hold.
References:
 Strangers: Homosexual Love in the Nineteenth Century Paperback – Illustrated, February 17, 2005 by Graham Robb |
Other references:
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