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Titles
Only one title has been suggested:
- Portrait of Hetty Pettigrew (1980, YMSM).
Description
Unknown. The sole information is that it was 'an important picture'. 1 This could mean it was a portrait or a figure study.
Sitter
E. L. Sambourne, Hetty and Lily Pettigrew, photograph, Leighton House
Harriet (Hetty) Pettigrew (1867-1953) was the oldest of the Pettigrew sisters. She was the daughter of William Pettigrew, a cork cutter, and Harriet Davis, a needleworker: they had married in 1853 and had thirteen children in all. Hetty's younger sisters Rose, Amy and Lily were also models. According to Rose, Hetty had 'soft straight hair, like a burnished chestnut, glorious skin, and big hazel eyes.' 2
The Arabian, The Hunterian
She posed with her sisters for Whistler for pastels such as The Arabian [M.1273].
E. L. Sambourne, Hetty Pettigrew, photograph, Leighton House
E. L. Sambourne, Hetty Pettigrew, photo
E. L. Sambourne, Hetty and Lily Pettigrew, photograph, Leighton House
She was a popular model, as were all the sisters, modelling for Théodore Roussel (1847-1926), Edward Linley Sambourne (1844-1910) – who took the photographs reproduced above – and others.
She was a sculptor as well as an artist's model, and exhibited her work in several exhibitions, particularly The Royal Glasgow Institute of the Fine Art, between 1893 and 1898. 3
Notes:
1: Rose Pettigrew memoirs in GUL MacColl P/64; quoted by Laughton 1971 [more], pp. 113-14, 116-17.
2: MacDonald, Margaret, 'Pettigrew sisters', in Jiminez, Jill Berk (ed.), Dictionary of Artists' Models, Chicago, 2001, p. 425.
3: 'Harriet S. Pettigrew', Mapping the Practice and Profession of Sculpture in Britain and Ireland 1851-1951, website at https://sculpture.gla.ac.uk.
Last updated: 27th October 2019 by Margaret
