Norah Fulcher

Norah Manning Fulcher (1867 - 1945), was a commercially successful watercolour portrait artist, living and working in London for four decades, between 1898 and 1939.

Early Life and art education
Norah Fulcher was born in November 1867 in Burbage, Wiltshire, the second child of four born to the local doctor, George Frederick Fulcher and his wife, Jessie. Her grandparents were a millwright, dressmaker, builder, and home maker.

She attended the Holy Trinity Convent boarding school in Oxford, along with her elder sister, Margaret. By 1888 the family had moved to Chingford, Essex, where her father became the Chief Public Health Officer.

In 1888 Norah was a prizewinning art student at the Walthamstow School of Science and Art, and in 1895 she received her first review in The Queen, the Ladies Newspaper and Court Chronicle when she exhibited a picture called 'Reflections' in 'Pictures by Lady Artists' in the Royal Society of British Artists:

"It is a capital head and exhibits the result of thorough art training..Miss Fulcher commenced her course of study at the Walthamstow School of Art with Frank Swinstead, then went to South Kensington where she gained many prizes, migrating finally to the Bloomsbury School and to the Birkbeck Institute...". (the review named the artist as Laura Fulcher, corrected in the next issue.)

Career
It’s important to note that artistic and commercial success were much harder for women to achieve at that time, particularly for those, like Norah, without helpful existing connections in the art world. Women were many years from having a vote, and there was explicit prejudice, exemplified by this dismissive article in the Saturday Review of 1899, a prominent weekly newspaper devoted to politics, literature, science and art, which included:

‘…girls in vast numbers have studied art under the same conditions as men…and practically nothing has come of it’.

By 1898 Norah was living in London, with her own studio and accommodation at 43 - 45 Blenheim Crescent, Kensington. It was a statement of professional commitment to have a dedicated studio, and it is most likely that at this time Norah was being financially supported by her family. It was very well situated, with privacy and a community provided by the layout - two houses with a single front door containing purpose built artists’ studios with large north-facing windows and three flats. It was owned and lived in by the oil painter, Thomas Liddall Armitage, whose most well known work is 'The Postman', now in The Postal Museum. Several artists stayed and worked here during the 40 years that Fulcher lived at no 43, including painter and woodblock artist Émile Antoine Verpilleux, Lily Wrangle Christie, Robert Christie, and the stained glass artist Edward Liddall Armitage (son of Thomas).

Norah exhibited regularly while establishing her reputation, including at the Royal Society of British Artists (1896), the Royal Academy Exhibition (1898 ,1910 ,1913 ),the Walker Gallery Liverpool (1905 ) and the Royal Institute of Painters in Watercolours, 93rd Exhibition (1906)

1906 must have been a breakthrough year. She had a solo exhibition of 45 drawings and paintings at the Lyceum Club Gallery, which was well reviewed in The Queen and the London Evening Standard. The Lyceum Club, housed in a prestigious building in Piccadilly, had been opened by Constance Smedley in 1903. It was a place designed for social and professional networking for women, functioning in much the same way as the long established men's clubs. This will have provided Norah with the opportunity to connect with potential clients and their families, and as Maria Quirk the art historian has observed, "portraiture provided a relatively stable and sustainable livelihood to women with the means and determination to foster their reputations and cultivate client relationships."

Her commissions were largely from the professional middle classes and landed gentry, and included Mary Brodrick, academic archeologist and Egyptologist, Arthur Mayo-Robson, pioneering surgeon and President of the British Gynaecological Society, the Hon Mrs Charles Harbord of Gunton Park, Norfolk , Mrs Hill-Whitson of Parkhill, Blairgowie, Scotland, Mrs Lyon Campbell, Mrs Eleanor Jessie Tennent (Botet-Trydell?), and Betty and Mollie Stearns, the young daughters of A.W. Stearns, a stockbroker. These 2 portraits were exhibited in the Royal Academy in 1910 and 1913 respectively. Others have been auctioned in recent years without a subject attribution. The only portrait known to be in a public collection is Sir Arthur Mayo-Robson, which is held at Leeds University.

Norah Fulcher's Will reveals that she had considerable commercial success. Born a doctor's daughter, she left £678,040 at current values, plus a considerable amount of jewellery to named friends. The equivalent value of her father’s estate when he died in 1912 after a lifetime in medicine and public health was £279,559.

Her style of portraiture was conventional and popular, enabling her to live independently and comfortably. Unknown now, she succeeded on her own terms; her story represents the many other women, also now unknown, whose careers helped to break the prejudice and boundaries on women's lives as professional artists.

Family and Personal Life
Norah's family is an interesting example of middle - class lives in the fast changing times of the early 20thC. She was born a Victorian, but developments in transport gave her generation a new mobility, and accelerating social change brought opportunities for an independently minded and courageous young woman like Norah.

Her sisters chose more conventional paths. Margaret, the oldest, married Harry Siegler, an Anglo-Jewish businessman and factory owner from Manchester. She was 34, he was 9 years younger. They had a son in 1901, but Margaret died in 1914.

Katharine, the younger sister, never married and continued living at home in Chingford until her father died in 1912. She was a devoted church attender, and continued to be so when she moved to Wiveliscombe in Somerset.

The youngest child and Norah's only brother, Frank Sydney Fulcher, emigrated to Hong Kong around 1899, where he worked as an Assistant in the China Traders Insurance Company. He made (at least) 2 return visits to the UK in 1906 and 1908, returning via New York and Shanghai. He died in Shanghai 5 months after returning from his final visit home, aged 38.

Norah Fulcher died on 24th June 1945 and her Will reveals something of her character. She enjoyed expensive jewellery, giving detailed descriptions of pieces that she wished to bequeath to a wide circle of women friends. She was good at keeping friendships: Mollie Thorne (née Stearns) who Norah painted in 1913 was remembered in her Will. She also left a legacy to Edith Emily Mocatta, a friend who was a witness at her sister Margaret's wedding in 1900, 45 years earlier.

Her Will also tells us how strongly she held her beliefs. She originally made bequests to Edward Liddall Armitage and his family, but on the same day retracted everything having discovered that they were conscientious objectors. Yet she had known Edward for 42 years, since he was a boy of 12 growing up in the house in Blenheim Crescent which was owned by his father, Thomas, who was Norah's friend. Edward had also fought in the First World War.

She was politically conservative but non-conformist in belief; a long standing member of The Ethical Church, in Bayswater. A forerunner to the Humanist movement, it espoused social reform, and a sense of community rather than theological religious worship. It was about Goodness rather than Godliness, and it was outside the mainstream. She asked for Harold Blackham, leader of the Ethical Church from 1933, to preside at her funeral.

The person closest to her was Dora Mary Saxton, a loving friend for decades. Dora was described by her cousin Sidney Waring Saxton in a 1947 letter to his cousin, Keitha as: 'sweet natured and a friend to everyone.' They spent winters in Bordighera in Italy together for many years, always staying in one of the best hotels, the Hotel Angst. In 1928, the year Norah painted Sir Arthur Mayo-Robson's portrait, he was staying there with his family at the same time. Mary Brodrick also spent much time in Bordighera; it was very popular with the affluent British.

Dora Saxton was also a long-standing member of The Ethical Church, and lived within a short walk of Blenheim Crescent. In their last years they both moved to Wimbledon, living separately but in the same road. Their Wills reflect their mutual affection. Dora died on the 17 June 1938, and Norah was the first to be named in her Will, as 'my dear friend'.

In her own Will, Norah asked for her cremation to be at Golders Green, and her ashes to be scattered at the same spot where Dora's had been placed in 1938.

A selection of portraits
Portrait of a Lady

Portrait of a Young Lady in a Green Dress

Portrait of a Child

Sir Arthur Mayo-Robson

Seventeen portraits have been traced so far, but given the length of her career there must be many more.