Detail from The Canal, Amsterdam, 1889, James McNeill Whistler, The Hunterian, University of Glasgow

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Inez Eleanor Addams

Title: Mrs Clifford Addams
Birthname: Bate
Nationality: Irish
Date of birth: 1874
Place of birth: King's Heath, Worcs.
Date of death: 1958
Category: painter

Identity:

Inez Eleanor Addams, née Bate, was a painter. On 27 June 1900 she married Clifford Addams (1876-1942), also an artist. Their daughter, Dianne Addams, was born in 1901. They also had three sons: James, Anthony and Martin. In 1922 they separated, but Inez would not divorce. She became a naturalised British citizen on 20 July 1932.

A portrait of her by Clifford Addams is in the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts (1913.1 PAFA).

Life:

Inez Bate studied initially under Cornon in Belgium. On 20 July 1899 she became articled to Whistler as his legal apprentice. One of the first students of the Académie Carmen (1899-1901), she became Massière of the Académie (her husband later became Massier of the men's class). In October 1900, by now Inez Addams, she opened the Académie with a life class for women only. However, on Whistler's instructions, the Académie was closed on 6 April 1901. As Whistler's protegé and pupil, she exhibited paintings at the International Society of Sculptors, Painters and Gravers during his Presidency.

She exhibited between 1901-1927 at the Royal Glasgow Institute of the Fine Arts, the International Society of Sculptors, Painters and Gravers, the Royal Society of Portrait Painters and the Royal Academy. In 1915, she won a medal at the Panama-Pacific Exposition, San Francisco.

Bibliography:

Who Was Who in America: Historical Volume 1607-1896, Chicago, 1963; Census for England and Wales, 1911; information from family descendant.

London Gazette, 2 August 1932, https://www.thegazette.co.uk/London/issue/33851/page/5000/data.pdf