Women artists in all ages and countries

by E. F. Ellet

After 1780, she produced several fine specimens of sculpture, both in marble and terra-cotta. She made a group of sleeping dogs, in marble, for the Duke of Richmond, her brother-in-law, and another for Queen Charlotte. She presented a bust of herself, in 1778, to the Florentine Gallery, and executed several of her titled lady relatives, which were esteemed as works of great merit, and still adorn the galleries of noble connoisseurs. Two colossal heads of her workmanship, representing Thames and Isis, were designed for the keystones of the bridge at Henley.

Envy was busy, as it generally is, in disputing the claims of this noble lady to the entire authorship of her celebrated productions; but, though they exhibit a varied character, there was no proof that she availed herself of more assistance than is usual for all sculptors, both in modeling and marble-work. Subordinate hands are always employed in preparing the model and removing the superfluous material.

Mrs. Damer complied with the fancy of the day in idealizing the portraits of some of her friends into muses and deities. To please her fast friend, Horace Walpole, she presented him with two kittens in marble, wrought by herself, as an addition to the curiosities of his villa. Still more endearing than their relationship was her agreement with him in political opinions.

She had lost her father at the time she went abroad in 1779. The seas were filled with the armed vessels of France, America, and Great Britain, and there was some danger in crossing the Channel. The sculptress was protected, it is true, by her sympathy with the Transatlantic “rebels” and by her character of artist. However, the vessel in which she sailed encountered a French man-of-war, with which a running fight was kept up for four hours. But “the heroic daughter of a hero” manifested both sense and coolness. The French prevailed; the packet struck its colors within sight of Ostend; but Mrs. Damer was not detained in captivity.

She now devoted herself more assiduously to the study of classic authors, with the view of entering more fully into the feeling and character of antique sculpture. She kept notes of her reflections as she contemplated the works of art in Italy, with the remarks of critics. She was bent on accomplishing some great work, the glory of which should eclipse the lustre of her hereditary dignity. She had more ambition to become distinguished as a sculptor than as the descendant of the high aristocracy of Britain.

Returning from Italy and Spain, she took part in the election that terminated in the triumph of Charles Fox. Mrs. Crewe and the lovely Duchess of Devonshire joined her in canvassing for their favorite, the Whig candidate, “rustling their silks in the lowest sinks of sin and misery, and, in return for the electors’ ‘most sweet voices,’ submitting, it is said, their own sweet cheeks to the salutes of butchers and barge-men.”

An old elector said to Cunningham: “It was a fine sight to see a grand lady come right smack up to us hard-working mortals, with a hand held out, and a ‘Master, how d’ ye do?’ and laugh so loud, and talk so kind, and shake us by the hand, and say, ‘Give us your vote, worthy sir—a plumper for the people’s friend, our friend, every body’s friend.’ And then, sir, if we hummed and hawed, they would ask us for our wives and children; and if that didn’t do, they’d think nothing of a kiss—ay, a dozen on ’em. Kissing was nothing to them, and it came all so natural.”

It is recorded, also, that Mrs. Damer was fond of private theatricals, and recited poetry and personated characters in plays performed at the Duke of Richmond’s and elsewhere. Her talents in high comedy won deserved applause, and many of our actresses would be eclipsed by her performance in the standard old pieces. But though she took part in such entertainments for the pleasure of others, her own delight was in sculpture alone. Her busts in bronze, marble, and terra-cotta became ornaments to the rich collections of her friends. Her statue of the king in marble was established in the Edinburgh Register Office. She consecrated a monumental bust to the memory of the countess her mother, whose pieces of needle-work had equaled the finest paintings. She formed a design to perpetuate the memory of a noble act by Lord William Campbell, her uncle, he having once leaped from a boat into the Thames, and dived down sixteen feet, to save the life of a drowning man. This work was never finished in marble.

Mrs. Damer’s heroes, out of her own family, were Fox, Nelson, and Napoleon; and she was acquainted with them all. She executed the busts of the first two, and it was one of her fancies to record in a small book the remarks of “the Napoleon of the waves” during his conversations with her. During her visit in France she formed a friendship for the Viscountess Beauharnais; and many years afterward a French gentleman brought her a letter from the wife of the First Consul, with a splendid present of porcelain. She was invited to Paris by her former friend, who desired to present her to Napoleon. The latter asked her for a bust of Fox, which Mrs. Damer brought to the emperor on a subsequent visit to Paris. The emperor presented her with a splendid snuff-box and his portrait set with diamonds.

Walpole died in 1797, bequeathing to this daughter of General Conway for her life, his Gothic villa of “Strawberry Hill,” with its rich and rare contents—books and artistic curiosities—and two thousand pounds a year to keep the place in repair. It has “become famous from its connection with the studies of the accomplished author of the Castle of Otranto.” Here Mrs. Damer was happy in entertaining her friends, not only with feasts of good things at her table, but with private theatrical performances, in which she often took part. Joanna Baillie, the matchless Siddons, Mrs. Garrick, Mrs. Berry and her daughters, were among her chosen companions. The classic villa, however, had been entailed upon Lord Waldegrave, and Mrs. Damer was induced to give it up to him ten years previous to her own death. She purchased York House in the neighborhood, the birth-place of Queen Anne. This was her summer residence, her winter house being in Park Lane.