Portraits in childhood of the Edinburgh-born women’s rights campaigner and future author of British Freewomen: Their Historical Privilege, Charlotte Carmichael, by her father, the landscape artist James Ferrier Carmichael and by herself.
Charlotte Carmichael (1840-1929) was part of the first university level classes for women in Edinburgh under Professor David Masson at a time when the university was not open to women. She was active in dress reform for women, published widely and contributed to Shakespeare studies, marrying Henry Stopes with whom she had a daughter, Marie Stopes who curated this collection - most of the drawings have her notes on the verso and on the portfolio containing the collection.
The collection is housed in a large portfolio on which Marie Stopes has written 'M C Stopes - art' as well as adding explanatory annotations to many of the works. Thus a portrait of Charlotte Carmichael has Stopes's note: 'By [James Ferrier] Carmichael - of mother etc - done in 1850? The stool is the one I still have'. Clearly Stopes took on the role of family archivist, preserving images of her distinguished Carmichael forebears and including in the portfolio just a single drawing of her own. Provenance: from the estate of Marie Stopes's son the philosopher Henry Stopes-Roe. Of the 30 or so items included, the most significant, in reverse chronological order are:
ANN DURWARD Marie Stopes's great-grandmother
'1st Drawings & Paintings from Nature 1786': single sheet with coloured nature studies on both sides
JAMES FERRIER CARMICHAEL(1810-1854) Scottish Landscape Artist: Grandfather of Marie Stopes
1 'Oil picture by grandfather of mother, later Mrs Charlotte Carmichael Stopes' (note by Marie Stopes to verso) Small oil on canvas, unframed, showing the infant Charlotte Carmichael sitting in a miniature armchair. Contained within a large envelope addressed to Marie Stopes at Norbury Park. (29x39cm)
2. 'Drawing of Charlotte Carmichael by her father the artist James Ferrier Carmichael she later became the wife of Henry Stopes and mother of Dr Marie Stopes' (MS label by Marie Stopes to verso) A large pencil portrait on board of Charlotte Carmichael standing and gesturing forward as a child, perhaps two years old. The image is rubbed with some loss to image (48x33cm).
3. 'By Carmichael - of mother etc - done in 1850? The stool is the one I still have' (Marie Stopes note to verso) A single sheet bearing three pencil drawings (27x22cm) depicting Charlotte Carmichael as an infant and a man tilling crops.
4. 'Charlotte Carmichael aged 7 By her father' (MS note) charcoal and colour on paper, mounted. (25x32cm)
5. Two further bucolic watercolours and a large pencil drawing of a young horseman talking to a little girl also appear to be the work of James Ferrier Carmichael.
CHARLOTTE CARMICHAEL-STOPES (1840-1929) scholar, author, campaigner for women's rights: Marie Stopes's mother.
(A sequence of 5 pencil designs for architectural details each with tissue guard, signed Charlotte Carmichael.)
1. Study for design of fountain, pencil on paper with tissue guard. (27x41cm), signed Charlotte Carmichael
2. Acanthus scrolls, architectural detail, pencil on paper (40x24cm)
3. Stylised Iris, pencil on paper(45x30cm)
4. Foliate design, perhaps for carving with tissue guard (40x20cm)
5. Foliate design, perhaps architectural, with tissue guard (40x27cm)
6. Four watercolours of conventional pastoral scenes with ruined buildings - one annotated to verso by Marie Stopes as her mother's work.
HENRY STOPES, father of Marie Stopes (1852-1902): brewer, architect and amateur palaeontologist
Architectural engraving of 'New Malthouse East Moors Cardiff... Plans Revised H. Stopes. London. May 1886' (35x23cm)
MARIE STOPES
'Marie Stopes Line sketch 1 1/4 hrs.' Pencil on paper study of a jug and three dimensional figure (24x17cm)
Further drawings by CARMICHAEL family members include works by Ellen S Carmichael c1865; H S Carmichael - 'A view near Balquidder' - presumed aunt/ uncle of Marie Stopes; 'Christine' river crossing pencil drawings; 'HSC' Landscape drawing, pencil on paper, perhaps Italy, 'HSC 1865' (43x29cm). There are several late Victorian watercolours of plush domestic interiors, possibly Marie Stopes's childhood home.
