MEAD, Rose

1867 - 1946

Emma Rose Mead, known as Rose Mead, was born at 15 Hatter Street, Bury St Edmund’s, Suffolk on 4 December 1867, youngest of the six sons and two daughters of Samuel Mead (4 May 1825-24 May 1895), a master house decorator employing several men, and his wife Emma née Smith (11 March 1826-6 January 1919), who married at St James's Church, Bury St Edmund’s on 31 July 1846. By 1881 Samuel, with his wife and two of his children including Emma Rose, had retired to 32 Clapham Road, Lowestoft, Suffolk. Rose studied at Bury St Edmunds Science and Art Classes from where in 1884, she is noted as passing her art examinations and from about 1885 Rose studied for five years at the Lincoln School of Art and exhibited at the [[Bury St Edmunds [and West Suffolk] Fine Art Society,4385]] in 1889, a watercolour 'Interior of St Mary's Church, Bury St Edmund's'. In 1891 Rose was a 23-year-old art student, lodging at Clifton Villa Cottage, St Johns Road, Leatherhead, Surrey, her 37-year-old brother Arthur, a bank clerk, was also lodging at this address, which was the home of Henry Gouger, a carpenter, and his family. At that time Rose was a student at Westminster School of Art in London under Frederick Brown (1851-1941), before his appointment as Professor at the Slade School of Fine Art, after which she spent a year in Paris at Académie Delécluse, exhibiting a pastel portrait at the Paris Salon. Rose lived in London for a brief time before returning to Bury St Edmund's and in 1901 was living at 18 Crown Street, nursing her elderly mother, who died in 1919, aged 92. Rose painted local studies from her studio at her home where she established a busy local practice for portraits and townscapes, using the name Rose Mead, to avoid confusion with her mother. A painter in oil and watercolour of portraits and personalities, Rose Mead exhibited at the Royal Academy also showing two pictures at the Royal Society of Portrait Painters, two at the Royal Cambrian Academy of Art and three at the Society of Women Artists. She exhibited at the Suffolk Art and Aid Association in 1908 and was a member of the Ipswich Art Club 1925-1939, exhibiting from 18a Crown Street, Bury St Edmund's in 1927, eight works 'Pinks', 'The Place, St Martin's Vesubie', 'Gattieres', 'Carros', 'The Blue Shop', 'Balconies in St Martin Vésubie', 'Venanson, Near St Martin Vésubie' and 'Autumn in the Alpes-Maritimes' and was a regular annual exhibitor and at the centenary exhibition of the Art Club in 1974 her oil 'Cottage Interior' was on display. In her later years she lived at St Edmund’s Hotel on Angel Hill and when she failed to return to the hotel, on investigation was found in the hallway of her studio at 18a Crown Street, from a fall downstairs and she died from a fractured skull on 28 March 1946, she was unmarried. A large retrospective exhibition was held in Bury St Edmund's in 1955 showing ninety-three of her paintings.

Royal Academy Exhibits
from 18 Crown Street, Bury St Edmund's, Suffolk
1896 1131 Mrs Noel Griffith
from 8 Trafalgar Studios, Manresa Road, SW London
1897 570 Cuisine en Bohème
from 18 Crown Street, Bury St Edmund's, Suffolk
1899 595 Friday Morning at St Mary's, Bury St Edmund's
         610 My Mother
1908 448 Humble Life
1916 911 Corporal Billy

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Works by This Artist