McKEAN, Bessie

1848 - 1939

Elizabeth McKean, known as Bessie, was born at Upwell, Wisbech, Cambridgeshire in 1848, daughter of Scottish born Michael McKean (c1817-28 October 1906), a grocer & draper, and his wife Mary Elizabeth née Leach (c1820-1901), who married at Thetford, Norfolk in 1842. In 1871, Bessie was a 22-year-old, living at Thoroughfare, Halesworth, Suffolk with her parents, 54-year-old Michael, a retired draper & landowner, and 51-year-old Mary Elizabeth, with siblings, Emma 27 and [Jane] Mary 26, both born at Kings Lynn, Norfolk. Together with her sister, now Mary Jane (1844-3 May 1919), in 1872 they designed and painted the East window of the North aisle of Saxmundham church, depicting two angels against patterned quarries which was installed by Mr Howlett, a Saxmundham glazier. By 1881 they had moved to 18 Hilldrop Crescent, Islington, London from where Bessie exhibited at the Woodbridge Fine Art Exhibition in April 1887, a watercolour 'Portrait'. As Elizabeth McKean she was still living with her parents at Islington in 1901. Elizabeth McKean died at Fiveways, Camberley, Surrey on 29 June 1939, aged 90, she was unmarried.

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Works by This Artist