EVERY, Eleanor

1864 - 1935

Eleanor Maude Every was born at Egginton Hall, Burton-on-Trent, Derbyshire in 1864 and baptised at Egginton on 29 May 1864, second of the four daughters, with several brothers, of Sir Henry Flower Every, 10th Bart. (23 December 1830-26 February 1893) and his second wife Mary Isabella née Hollond (30 April 1840-9 October 1935), who married at Benhall, Suffolk on 12 October 1859. Eleanor’s early talent for drawing was nurtured by a course of instruction from watercolour artist, Paul Jacob Naftel (1817–1891), professor of Drawing at Elizabeth College, Guernsey, who settled in England in 1870. Eleanor was a watercolour artist and obtained inspiration from the Egginton countryside and exhibited at the Society for the Promotion of Art at the Alpine Club Gallery from where she received several prizes also exhibiting at the Dudley Gallery, Royal Institute of Painters in Water Colours and the Society of Women Artists. In 1889 she sent works from Egginton Hall, but the family travelled extensively including to South Africa and the United States, but by 1900, Eleanor, together with her widowed mother, had moved to 18 Montagu Street, Portman Square, London. Eleanor’s mother, Isabella was of the Hollond family of Benhall Lodge, Saxmundham, Suffolk and Eleanor's nephew, Edward Oswald Every (14 January 1886-11 November 1959), who inherited the baronetcy, married on 25 July 1909, Ivy Linton Meller (26 April 1891-27 June 1976) from Rushmere, near Ipswich which enabled Eleanor to regularly stay in Suffolk and where Eleanor painted some of her best landscapes, including 'Hadleigh Deanery', 'A Mill near Higham', 'Claydon Pit', 'Cransford Hall' and 'Cornfields near Kersey'. She was a friend of Kate Prentice from Stowmarket, Suffolk who had also been a student of Paul Naftel. Although a very competent artist, which played an important part in her life, she was also a dedicated charitable social worker spending long hours visiting poor neighbourhoods in London. Eleanor Maude Every died, two months after her mother, at 18 Montague Street, Portman Square, London on 7 December 1935, she was unmarried, and donated the above Suffolk watercolours to Ipswich & Colchester Museums Service. Eleanor's sister, Alice Vere Every (1863-1956) was also an artist in watercolour and exhibited at the Walker Art Gallery from Portman Square, in 1904.

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Works by This Artist