Mary Ann Rebecca (Alabaster) Criddle (1805 - 1879)

Born 28 Oct 1805 in Chapel Street, Holywell, Shoreditch, London, England

Wife of Harry C. Criddle — married 19 Mar 1836 in London, UK

Descendants

Died 28 Dec 1879 at age 74 in Addlestone, Surrey, England

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Biography

Mary Alabaster was the daughter of Charles Alabaster and Mary (Dearmer) Albaster. She was born on 20 October 1805 and was baptised at St Leonards Shoreditch on 9 February 1806.^[1]

Taken from Wikipedia: "Mary Anne Criddle, née Alabaster (1805 – 1880) was an English painter.

She was born at Chapel House, Holywell Mount in Shoreditch, East London.[1] She became an oil painter studying under John Hayter.[1] She married Harry C. Criddle in 1836 and continued to work after her marriage, though after her brother died in 1840 she took on his three sons and in 1844 her own son Percy was born.[1] She took up Watercolour painting in 1846 when her doctor told her oil painting was bad for her health.[1] She became successful with these at shows at the Royal Academy as well and in 1849 became a member of the Society of Painters in Water Colours.[1] She is also known for sculpture.[2]

From 1852-1854 suffered partial blindness and stopped working, but was still working when her biography was written by Ellen Creathorne Clayton in 1876."

• • • Mary Ann Alabaster Criddle (28 Oct 1805 – 28 Dec 1879)

A Short Biography by Myrna Paquette (IIC)

Mary Ann Alabaster Criddle – a Member of the Society of Painters in Water Colours, was an award winning English, Victorian-era artist most known for her paintings in oils and water colours, and was also accomplished in drawings, illustrations and cartoons. She worked under her maiden name, Mary Ann Alabaster, prior to her marriage in 1836. Thereafter she worked under the name Mary Ann Criddle.

Biography Mary Ann Rebecca Alabaster, daughter of Charles Alabaster and Mary Dearmer, was born 28 October 1805 at Chapel House, Shoreditch, London, England, and was christened 9 Feb 1806 at St. Leonard, Shoreditch, London. She died at Addlestone on 28 December 1879. She married Henry (Harry) Criddle on 19 March 1836. He died 18 October 1857. In spite of delicate health and the early loss of her husband, she continued with her painting and teaching and brought up her son, Percy, born in 1844, along with the three sons of her brother, James Chaloner Alabaster, when he and his wife died in 1840. Percy, educated in England and Germany, was in the Import/Export business in England, and emigrated to Manitoba in 1882 where he became a well-known farmer. Mary Ann’s three nephews were well placed in diplomatic and religious/educational circles. Sir Chaloner Alabaster was with the British Embassy in China, later went to Oxford and ordained to the ministry. Henry Alabaster joined the Diplomatic Service and became an advisor to the King of Siam. Charles Alabaster attended King’s College, Lincoln College Oxford, was a Deacon and Priest in 1857 and 1858 respectively at Oxford, then because of ill health emigrated to New Zealand where he was Chaplain to the Bishop of Christchurch and, with his wife, founded a Preparatory School for Boys.

Career Mary Ann Rebecca Alabaster inherited her talent for drawing from her father who amused himself and the children with his drawings. Her parents, however, discouraged her wishes to become an artist, seeing it as a rather useless accomplishment. She studied oil painting on her own and only several years after her father’s death in 1820 did her mother agree that she was to study oil painting under Sir John Hayter, attending his studio from 1824 to the autumn of 1826. Later in 1846 when the oils were affecting her health, she took some lessons in water colour drawing from Sarah Setchel. After going completely blind in 1852 from the effect of the oils, she spent several months recovering enough to start working again in Watercolours. Her complete sight came back gradually over the next few years.

As Mary Ann Criddle, she was advised that she had been accepted as a “Member” of the Society of Painters in Water Colours on 12 Feb 1849. The following year she was listed as an “Honorary Member”, along with the three other female members, Nancy Raynor, Maria Harrison and Eliza Sharp. The four women struggled against the Society of Water Colours` discrimination against women members and in May 1850 were relisted as “Lady Members”. As such they were still denied some of the benefits of the Society, including the profit sharing which was strictly for Male Members.

Exhibitions Mary Ann’s paintings and illustrations were shown at the Royal Academy and other Exhibitions throughout England and America, among them Provincial Exhibitions, Westminster Hall, the Great Exhibition of 1862, the Manchester Great Exhibition, and the 1857-1858 American Exhibition of British Art. She exhibited in the Society Exhibitions 139 works under her name, 63 in the 32 summer shows from 1849 to 1880 and 76 in the winter shows from 1862-63 to 1879-80. She exhibited 52 works between 1830 and 1848, eleven at the Royal Academy, 25 at the British Institution and 16 at Suffolk Street.

Some of her Awards - The silver palette of the Society of Arts for a chalk drawing of Apollo 1827 - The Large silver medal for a copy in oil of Harlowe’s portrait of Sir Benjamin West 1828 - The Gold Isis medal for an original portrait of her sister 1832 - The large gold medal for an original picture “The Visit to the Astrologer”. This gold medal had not been awarded for the previous ten years.

Some of Her Paintings in Oil and Watercolours, Chalk Drawings, Illustrations & Cartoons “The Artist’s Room” painted in 1830 and sold to the Marquis of Stafford, later the Duke of Sutherland. “Nature and Art”, “The Dying Sailor”, “Phoebe Dawson”, and “Lavinia and Her Mother” painted in 1849, the latter sold to Baroness Angela Burdett Coutts. “The Four Seasons” (4 paintings) sold to Baroness Angela Burdett Coutts. “ Interior of Turret Chamber” from “Quentin Durward”, “Mary Queen of Scots and her Three Maries”, “the Supper Scene in ‘Macbeth’”, “Queen Philippa interceding with her Husband for the Prisoners of Calais”, a life-size picture of “Saint Catherine” for Catherine Hall, Cambridge, “The Sisters’ School”, Large Cartoon taken from the ‘Epithalamium’ of Spenser (exhibited at Westminster Hall). Illustrations for “The Children’s Garden and What they Made of it” by the Catlow sisters in 1865 and “Babes in the Woods”.

68 lots of her works, including several hundred sketches, were auctioned at a private auction of her works on 26 May 1868 at Mr. Phillips’, 73 New Bond Street, London, England. She also did very many portrait paintings which were commissioned privately

Sources

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/19th-Century-Oil-Portrait-Lady-of-the-Lake-Mary-Anne-Criddle-Nee-Alabaster-/401288829647

1. ↑ "England Births and Christenings, 1538-1975", database, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:NLJ7-74L : 18 September 2020), Mary Ann Rebecca Alabaster, 1806.

In the following is the birth document of this woman: http://www.alabaster.org.uk/chron6.htm

http://www.virtualmuseum.ca/sgc-cms/histoires_de_chez_nous-community_memories/pm_v2.php?id=story_line&lg=English&fl=0&ex=00000296&sl=2822&pos=1&pf=1

http://www.alabaster.org.uk/chron27.htm#maryann