Royal Doulton: 'true sphere of woman is the family and household'

This week we have had the pleasure of discovering the work of the Lewis sisters, Isabel and Florence, who were leading artists for Royal Doulton in the 1880s. Both sisters studied at Lambeth School of Art, before finding employment in the Lambeth Faience department of the pottery works, of which Florence became head. In the late 19th century more than 300 women were employed at Doulton’s Lambeth pottery but it was nevertheless a man's world: Henry Doulton believed that the 'true sphere of woman is the family and household'.

From around 1898 the Lewis sisters relocated to Croydon and from this time onwards devoted themselves to their personal art, sketching and painting en plein air. Our collection of watercolours by Isabel Lewis shows her working in a style that bridges Impressionism and Post-impressionism. Her animal sketches seem to embody the move towards a 'decorative naturalism' that was exemplified by artists such as the 'Glasgow Boy' Joseph Crawhall (1861–1913). The place of female decorative artists in the story of European modernism is surely ripe for further research.