eorg Koberwein was born in Vienna in 1820. The son of two well known actors he studied painting in Paris under Paul Delaroche and worked in various capitals before settling in London with his wife Elise Romarko and two daughters, Rosa and Georgina. He exhibited at the RA from 1859 to 1876 from his studio in Berners Street and a few months before his death in 1876 became a naturalised British subject. He was patronised by Queen Victoria and asked to make copies of some of Franz Xaver Winterhalter's works as well as original portraits of members of the family. The Queen described Koberwein as "Such a useful good artist and pleasant person" (qtd. in "The Four Eldest Children...").
A few of the members of the royal family painted by Georg Koberwein. Left to right: (a) The Four Eldest Children of Crown Prince and Princess Frederick William of Prussia (1865). (b) Prince Henry of Prussia (1867), Victoria's grandchild, painted from a photograph of 1866. (c) Queen Victoria and Princess Beatrice (1874). All three images reproduced by kind permission of the Royal Collection Trust/ © His Majesty King Charles III. [Click on these and the following images for more information, and to see larger versions of them.]
After Georg's death some of this patronage was transferred to his daughters and there are several copies by them of works by better known artists in the Royal Collection. Georg moved between several addresses during his time in London: Acacia Place, St John's Wood in 1861; Alexandra Road, Hampstead in 1871; and Bedford Gardens, Kensington in 1876. He died in 1876 at 182 Holland Road, Kensington. His probate assets are listed at £450, a small sum compared to other successful artists of this period. Both his daughters were born in Vienna and were later naturalised.
Princess Victoria of Wales, by Rosa Koberwein (1878). Reproduced
by kind permission of the Royal Collection Trust/
© His Majesty King Charles III.
osa Koberwein, born in 1855, probably trained under her father exhibited at the RA from her early twenties up until 1892. Her work was well-received from the outset, but the kind of praise it attracted, for example in the Art Journal of 1878, helps to explain why it has not been given enough attention in our own times: "Rosa KOBERWEIN’S two portraits, In maiden meditation, fancy free (362), and Mrs. B. St. John Matthews (368), are scarcely so vigorous in handling as we should like to see them; but what the painter lacks in strength she makes up in sweetness. She must remember, however, that it is the blending of the two qualities which must be the unceasing aim of the artist" ("The Royal Academy Exhibition," 167). Rosa married a lawyer, Hamilton Fulton, in 1879: a notice was duly posted in the Pall Mall Budget of 11 October 1879: "Fulton—Koberwein — At St. Mary Abbott's, Kensington, Mr. Hamilton Fulton, of Phillimore-terrace, Kensington, to Rosa, daughter of the late Mr. George F. Koberwein, of Holland-road, Kensington, Sept. 30" (77); and in 1880 the couple were indeed recorded as living at Phillimore Terrace. Rosa and her husband had three children and later moved to Salisbury where Rosa died in 1911.
Mrs Spencer (Ada) Herapath, by Georgina Koberwein (1880).
Reproduced by kind permission of the private owner.
eorgina Koberwein was born in 1856. Like her sister she may have trained under her father and most of her surviving works are copies of famous paintings, but she also produced portraits of her own for the affluent middle classes, exhibiting at the RA from 1877 to 1887. Her work too was described as "charming," and the same reviewer noted that her painting entitled A Nut-Brown Maid, shown in the Dudley Gallery in the winter of 1879, "has delicacy of tone and is one the eye finds pleasure in lingering on" ("Fine Art," 449). She married Arthur a'Beckett Terrell, a lawyer, in 1878 and began signing her pictures Koberwein Terrell. The couple lived in Kensington, London, moving house in this area several times. By 1881 they were at Redcliffe Gardens and ten years later they were living in comfort with several servants at Cranley Gardens.
After a gap to raise six children Georgina resumed her painting career and exhibited at the RA from 1903 to 1905. By 1911 the family had moved again to Collingham Place and after that to Fitzjames Avenue, where Arthur died in 1922. Georgina continued living in Kensington until 1934, then left London to stay with one of her daughters near Oxford. She died there in 1939.
Arthur a'Beckett Terrell was a wealthy man and had interesting connections in the art world: he befriended C.F.A. Voysey who designed him a house (not built) and a book plate. He also helped to stem the export of British works of art by encouraging the establishment of the Art Fund in 1903. This was able to match the prices offered to impoverished aristocrats who were selling off their assets, enabling many precious masterpieces to be exhibited in British museums.
Bibliography
Ancestry.co.uk. (subscription required).
"Births, Marriages and Deaths." Pall Mall Budget Vol 23 (1879-80). HathiTrust, from a copy in Cornell University. Web. 13 October 2024.
Cutten, Mervyn, and Brian Stewart. The Dictionary of Portrait Painters in Britain Up to 1920. Woodbridge, Suffolk: Antique Collectors' Club, 1997.
"Fine Art: Winter Exhibition, Dudley Gallery (Second Notice)." The Bazaar, The Exchange and Mart, and Journal of the Household. Vols. 20-21 (Friday 5 December 1879): 449. Google Books. Web. 13 October 2024 (free ebook).
The Four Eldest Children of Crown Prince and Princess Frederick William of Prussia. Royal Collection. Web. 13 October 2024.
Millar, Oliver. The Victorian Pictures in the Collection of Her Majesty the Queen. Cambridge: Cambrdge University Press, 1992.
Nicholson. Shirley. A Victorian Household, Based on the Diaries of Marion Sambourne. Cheltenham, Glos.: The History Press, 2005.
"Print; Bookplate." British Museum. Web. 13 October 2024.
"The Royal Academy Exhibition." The Art Journal. Vol. 17 (1878): 165-68. Google Books. Web. 13 October 2024 (free ebook).
"Unexecuted Design for a House." RIBA. Web. 13 October 2024.
Created 13 October 2024