Ellen Melicent Cobden
Ellen 'Nellie' Millicent Sickert (née Cobden, 18 August 1848– 4 September 1914),[2] was a British writer, campaigner and suffragist.
Life
[edit]Cobden was born Ellen Millicent Ashburner Cobden in 1848 in Manchester, Lancashire.[3] Her parents were Richard Cobden, radical MP and leader of the Anti-Corn Law League, and his Welsh wife Catherine Anne Williams.[4] She had four sisters and a brother. All the children were all encouraged to develop a strong civic consciousness from a young age.[5][6]
Cobden was formally educated at Miss Jeffreson’s School in Brighton.[7] In 1856, when she was just seven years old, her 15-year old brother Richard Cobden died of scarlet fever whilst studying at a German boarding school.[7]
After the death of her father in 1865,[4] Cobden was granted an annuity of £250 a year from the Cobden Tribute Fund. This had been established by family friends as an investment trust for Cobden's widow and her daughters and had raised over £25,000. Her mother died in April 1877.[7]
Cobden could afford to travel as a young woman and visited Algeria in North Africa during the 1870s.[8]
Cobden married the painter Walter Richard Sickert (1860–1942)[1] in 1885 at the Marylebone Registry Office. They spent their honeymoon in Dieppe, France.[9] Her husband commissioned his friend and artist James McNeill Whistler to paint two portraits of her around the time of the marriage, titled Arrangement in Violet and Pink: Mrs Walter Sickert and Green and Violet: Portrait of Mrs Walter Sickert.[3] She was also painted by Jacques Emile Blanche.[10]
Cobden financially supported her husbands own art career,[3] until she discovered in 1896 that he had been unfaithful to her for the duration of their marriage.[2] They lived mostly apart during the 1890s, with Cobden spending her time abroad in Venice, Italy, and Fluellen, Switzerland. The couple divorced in February 1900.[3]
She changed her name by deed poll from Ellen Melicent Ashburner Cobden Sickert to Ellen Melicent Cobden in 1913.[3] Cobden died of cancer just a year later, in 1914.[7]
Politics
[edit]Cobden supported the Irish Home Rule movement through membership of the English Home Rule Union and letter writing campaigns to The Times. She joined the South Africa Conciliation Committee in 1900.[7]
Cobden was also a supporter of women's suffrage. She donated funds to the Women’s Social and Political Union (WSPU).[11] In 1910, she participated, alongside her sister Anne Cobden-Sanderson, in the Women’s Suffrage Procession, organized by the Women’s Freedom League.[11] When Anne stood trial and was imprisoned for two months for her suffragette activities, Ellen and another sister Jane Cobden celebrated her release over dinner at the Savoy Hotel.[7]
Writing
[edit]In 1879, she wrote the poem “The Rights of Women".[7]
Under the pseudonym Miles Amber she published "Winstons – A story in three parts" in 1902. The novel was about the tragic experiences in society of two daughters of a Sussex farmer.[2] The novel was influenced by her political views and the views of her wider family.[12] It was dedicated to her sister Jane.
Under her own name she published the semi-autobiographical work "Sylvia Saxon – Episodes in a Life" in 1914. The book centred around a spoilt heiress struggling with marital difficulties and social questions[2] and included a fictional depiction of the Cobden family home of Dunford House, near Heyshott, West Sussex.[13] The Spectator reviewed the book, stating that “the writer's gifts of intuition and of observation are remarkable”.[14]
References
[edit]- ^ a b "Green and Violet: Mrs. Walter Sickert | Harvard Art Museums". Harvard Art Museums. Retrieved 13 November 2024.
- ^ a b c d Kemp, Sandra; Mitchell, Charlotte; Trotter, David (2005) [1997], "Cobden, Ellen", The Oxford Companion to Edwardian Fiction, Oxford University Press, doi:10.1093/acref/9780198117605.001.0001/acref-9780198117605-e-222, ISBN 978-0-19-811760-5, retrieved 13 November 2024
- ^ a b c d e "Ellen Millicent Sickert". Whistler Paintings. Retrieved 13 November 2024.
- ^ a b Taylor, Miles. "Cobden, Richard (1804–1865), manufacturer and politician". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/5741. Retrieved 13 November 2024.
- ^ Richardson, Sarah (2013). The Political Worlds of Women: Gender and Politics in Nineteenth Century Britain. Routledge. pp. 31–32. ISBN 978-0-415-82566-5.
- ^ Howe, Anthony (25 February 2010). The Letters of Richard Cobden: Volume II: 1848-1853. Oxford University Press. p. 55. ISBN 978-0-19-157255-5.
- ^ a b c d e f g Hurley, Ann. "The Cobdens". Hurley Skidmore History. Retrieved 13 November 2024.
- ^ Cherry, Deborah (12 November 2012). Beyond the Frame: Feminism and Visual Culture, Britain 1850 -1900. Routledge. p. 69. ISBN 978-1-135-09483-6.
- ^ "The life of artist Walter Sickert: Artistic errand boy who went on to give tips to Churchill". Ham & High. 10 March 2013. Retrieved 13 November 2024.
- ^ "Jacques Emile Blanche (1861-1942), Portrait of a lady, traditionally identified as Ellen Millicent Cobden (Mrs Walter Sickert)". Christie's. Retrieved 13 November 2024.
- ^ a b Crawford, Elizabeth (2 September 2003). The Women's Suffrage Movement: A Reference Guide 1866-1928. Routledge. p. 637. ISBN 978-1-135-43401-4.
- ^ Morgan, Simon (15 May 2017). Rethinking Nineteenth-Century Liberalism: Richard Cobden Bicentenary Essays. Routledge. ISBN 978-1-351-90361-5.
- ^ "Dunford House, Heyshott, West Sussex". British Listed Buildings. Retrieved 13 November 2024.
- ^ "Sylvia Saxon. By Ellen Melicent Cobden. (T. Fisher Unwin. 6s.)—The » 29 Aug 1914 » The Spectator Archive". The Spectator Archive. Retrieved 13 November 2024.
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