Oil paint on canvas
Tate Collection
Works with images
General Collection
Collection
<a href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artists/simon-bussy-843" aria-label="More by Simon Bussy" data-gtm-name="header_link_artist" data-gtm-destination="page--artist">Simon Bussy</a>
Lady Strachey
Presented by Miss Philipa Strachey and Miss Joan Pernel Strachey 1946
actions: postures and motions
adults
aristocrat
chair
clothing and personal items
collar
domestic
feminism
furnishings
government and politics
Grant, Jane Maria
individuals: female
interior - non-specific
interiors
named individuals
objects
people
portraits
royalty and social rank
sitting
society
spectacles
Strachey, Jane Maria, Lady
woman, old
work and occupations
painting oil paint canvas
Lady Strachey
support: 870 × 743 mm
Presented by Miss Philipa Strachey and Miss Joan Pernel Strachey 1946
<p><b>Simon Bussy</b><span> 1870-1954 </span>
<br/></p>
<p><span><a class="acno-pop" data-gtm-destination="page--artwork" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/bussy-lady-strachey-n05662" title="View the details of this artwork"><span>N05662</span></a> </span><b>Lady Strachey</b><span>
</span><i>c</i><span>.1905 </span>
<br/></p>
<p><span>Not inscribed</span>
<br/><span>Oil on canvas, 35 1/8 x 29 ¼ (89 x 74)</span>
<br/><span>Presented by Miss Philippa Strachey and Miss Joan Pernel Strachey 1946</span>
<br/><i>Prov:</i><span>
Lady Strachey, London; Miss Philippa Strachey and Miss Joan Pernel Strachey, London </span>
<br/></p>
<p><span>Lady Strachey, née Grant (1840-1928). She married Lieutenant-General Sir Richard Strachey as his second wife and bore him no less than thirteen children, including the historian Lytton Strachey; her daughter Dorothea married Simon Bussy in 1903. A woman of great strength of character, her wide circle of friends included Robert Browning, George Eliot, the Carlyles, Darwin, and Virginia and Leonard Woolf. An account of her and her very gifted family is given in Betty Askwith's </span><i>Two Victorian Families</i><span>
(London 1971). The author describes on pp.44 and 64 the consternation produced in the household by Dorothea's announcement that she had become engaged to Bussy, a penniless French painter, of peasant origin. However, Lady Strachey and her husband finally accepted the situation with good grace, and bought the couple a house at Roquebrune. </span>
<br/></p>
<p><span>Simon Bussy wrote (June 1952) that this <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/p/portrait" title="Glossary definition for 'Portrait'"><span>portrait</span></a> was commissioned by her and painted about 1905, and that it was never exhibited. </span>
<br/></p>
<p><b>Published in:</b>
<br/><span>Ronald Alley, </span><i>Catalogue of the Tate Gallery's Collection of Modern Art other than Works by British Artists</i><span>, Tate Gallery and Sotheby Parke-Bernet, London 1981, p.90, reproduced p.90</span>
<br/></p>

Catalogue entry
2004-09-15T00:00:00
catalogue-entry
CATALOGUE_ENTRY
actions: postures and motions adults aristocrat chair clothing and personal items collar domestic feminism furnishings government and politics Grant, Jane Maria individuals: female interior - non-specific interiors named individuals objects people portraits royalty and social rank sitting society spectacles Strachey, Jane Maria, Lady woman, old work and occupations