{"title":"Lewis, Isabel (fl.c.1870s–1920s)","description":"\u003cp\u003eIsabel Lewis (fl.c.1870s–1920s) was one of the leading artists working for Royal Doulton potteries at Lambeth around the 1880s.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eHer early life was spent in London, where her family home was at Kennington and her father was employed by Cox's bank. Isabel and her older sister, Florence, were encouraged in the arts by their father from a young age, and both went on to attend Lambeth School of Art, which at the time was one of the best art schools in the country. Under the direction of John Sparkes (who later became principal of the Royal College of Art, South Kensington), Lambeth became a training ground for artists for the nearby Doulton pottery works, and in turn the designs at Doulton became more artistic and refined. Isabel and Florence worked for Royal Doulton from the 1870s to the 1890s, when the highly decorative 'Lambeth Faience' style was at its height of popularity; exceptionally for the time, Florence even became head of the Faience department and teacher to about seventy students.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eIn 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'. The work of female decorative artists has so often been lost to the annals of time, but the place that such artists occupied in the story of European modernism should not be overlooked.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eAround 1898 the two sisters retired from the potteries and relocated to Croydon, from which time they both focused on their personal art, travelling together, sketching and exhibiting in the opening decades of the 20th century.\u003c\/p\u003e","products":[],"url":"https:\/\/somersetandwood.com\/fr-eu\/collections\/lewis-isabel-fl-c-1870s-1920s.oembed","provider":"Somerset \u0026 Wood Fine Art","version":"1.0","type":"link"}