Jennifer Goff

Eileen Gray


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in 1886 and went on lecture tours in America in 1893-94. When he was a curate, the Archbishop of Canterbury had regarded him as his protégé, but because of indiscreet behaviour he fell out of favour and was offered no preferment; though, prudently, nothing was done to put its outstanding preacher outside the boundaries of the Church.

      Stephen’s mother strove to repair the effect of her husband’s extravagances on their income by writing and illustrating a number of magazine articles and books for women on dress, deportment and decoration in the home, through which she gained an enviable reputation. Her magazine columns on interior decoration and fashion encouraged readers to reject Victorian fussiness in favour of the new ‘Art’ furniture. She also encouraged her readers to choose the best aspects of the Aesthetic Movement in their dress. Her books The Art of Beauty, 1878 and The Art of Decoration, 1881 were illustrated with Pre-Raphaelite and Aesthetic designs. She was also renowned for her literary adaptations, notably Chaucer for Children, 1877 where she retold Chaucer’s tales, making them suitable for Victorian readers. She was a very proud woman in that despite having to earn money she retained the status of a gentlewoman. Her assiduous work enabled her to pay for Stephen’s education at Westminster School and to send him to Peterhouse College, Cambridge.

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      2.4 James Maclaren Smith, Firenze, 1880s, black and white photograph © NMI

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      2.5 Lonsdale Gray, Eileen, Thora and a friend Captain French in the French Alps, year unknown, black and white photograph © NMI

      Haweis’s father died early in 1901. He had greatly resented his son who, devoted to his mother, appears to have been a quiet, attractive, hard-working young man. He had a streak of stubbornness in his make-up, for his mother had once written, ‘Stephen has the Haweis temper’. His father had undoubtedly cheated Stephen of a substantial legacy, but his mother had left sufficient money to make him not entirely dependent on the sale of his work and, indeed, enough to enable him to travel.