It was in researching the artist and teacher John Finnie
that I came across a Liverpool painter Constance Gertrude Copeman. The entry
for Finnie includes her portrait of him. Beyond a host of addresses in the city
where she lived, details of her life have been difficult to unearth and I have
been unable to find a single image of her. Nonetheless, she seems to have been
an artist of some national fame in her day, so despite the lack of detail an
entry in Liverpool Footprints seems merited.
She was born in 1864 in Liverpool, the daughter of solicitor
Charles Richard Copeman and his wife Jane. At the time of her birth the family
was living at 16 Montpelier Terrace L8, (this stood on the corner of Grove
Street and Upper Parliament Street). She attended the Liverpool Institute and School
of Art and was a favourite pupil of John Finnie. Her portrait of Finnie was
completed in 1903 and is now in the Walker Art Gallery collection. She
exhibited at the Liverpool Autumn Exhibition from 1885-1938 and the Royal Academy
from 1894. In addition to her painting she produced etching and engraving and round
about 1914 she took up toy making with a friend, Miss Palethorpe.
Her works still come up for sale around the world fetching
reasonable sums. One picture, Lucia, will not surface for sale as a
report in the Liverpool Daily Post on 15th February 1941
sadly recorded that it was one of the first few paintings in the Walker gallery
to have been destroyed by German bombing.
She died in 1953 and was buried at Toxteth Park cemetery on
26th November. She merited an entry in Who’s Who, which
survived her and is in the 1954 edition. It records that was unmarried, had won
the Queen’s Prize for Figure Compositions in 1892 and was a member of the Liverpool
Academy. Her address is shown as 158 Upper Parliament Street L8.
She had many homes in Liverpool including:
1871 108 Bedford Street South L7
1881 141 Upper Canning Street L8
1890 71 Egerton Street L8
1894-1911 2 Bridson Street L8
1918-1926 16 Lesseps Road L8
1833 49 Upper
Parliament Street L8
1937-1938 24A St James Road L8
1939 24 Huskisson
Street L8
1946-1953 158 Upper Parliament
Street L8
All but the Lesseps Road and Huskisson Street houses have
been demolished.
