Social Life
Jopling "painted portraits of titled sitters, wealthy financiers and actresses" and, to operate in this social milieu, she maintained a fashionable lifestyle, with a Chelsea studio designed by William Burges. She moved in a social circle that included Lady Colin Campbell, Kate Greenaway, James Tissot, and Edward Burne-Jones. Augustus Dubourg dedicated his 1892 play Angelica to her. In 1887 the society magazine The Lady’s World described her social circle,
One year we have her portrait, magnificently sketched by Millais, adorning the walls of the Grosvenor; next season she figures as the heroine of a ‘society’ novel from the pen of a popular writer. One week we see her salon drawn by Mr. Du Maurier in Punch, with sketches from the life of herself and her friends; the week after she appears under another name as the heroine of one of those quasi-malicious town and country tales which amuse the readers of a society paper… Over the mantelpiece hangs the portrait, by her old friend Sir John Millais, which made such a sensation at the Grosvenor a year or two ago…Here Mr. James Whistler and Mr. Oscar Wilde are always to be found, discussing the eternal problems of art; while Sir John Millais, Mr. Sargent and Mr. George Boughton are sworn allies of the subject of our sketch. The Ladies Archibald and Walter Campbell rarely miss a party.
It was at an 1883 party at the Joplings' house that Whistler had a famous exchange with Oscar Wilde. In response to a witticism of Whistler's, Wilde remarked, "How I wish I had said that." Whistler replied, "You will, Oscar, you will."
Like some other women painters (Kate Perugini and Marie Spartali Stillman are examples), Jopling also served as a model and subject for other artists. Both Millais and James Abbott McNeill Whistler painted portraits of her. Whistler praised Millais' picture as "a great work" and "a superb portrait."
Read more about this topic: Louise Jopling
Famous quotes containing the words social and/or life:
“The day-laborer is reckoned as standing at the foot of the social scale, yet he is saturated with the laws of the world. His measures are the hours; morning and night, solstice and equinox, geometry, astronomy, and all the lovely accidents of nature play through his mind.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“We have almost succeeded in leveling all human activities to the common denominator of securing the necessities of life and providing for their abundance.”
—Hannah Arendt (1906–1975)