Edith Corbet
Encyclopedia
Macchiaioli
The Macchiaioli were a group of Italian painters active in Tuscany in the second half of the nineteenth century, who, breaking with the antiquated conventions taught by the Italian academies of art, did much of their painting outdoors in order to capture natural light, shade, and colour...
group (also known as the Tuscans
Tuscany
Tuscany is a region in Italy. It has an area of about 23,000 square kilometres and a population of about 3.75 million inhabitants. The regional capital is Florence ....
or Etruscans
Etruscan civilization
Etruscan civilization is the modern English name given to a civilization of ancient Italy in the area corresponding roughly to Tuscany. The ancient Romans called its creators the Tusci or Etrusci...
), who, in a break with tradition, painted outdoors in order to capture natural light effects and favoured a panoramic format for their paintings.
Edith was born in Goulburn, New South Wales
New South Wales
New South Wales is a state of :Australia, located in the east of the country. It is bordered by Queensland, Victoria and South Australia to the north, south and west respectively. To the east, the state is bordered by the Tasman Sea, which forms part of the Pacific Ocean. New South Wales...
, Australia, the second daughter and fifth child of Henry Edenborough and Margaret Stedman. The Edenborough family came from Leicestershire
Leicestershire
Leicestershire is a landlocked county in the English Midlands. It takes its name from the heavily populated City of Leicester, traditionally its administrative centre, although the City of Leicester unitary authority is today administered separately from the rest of Leicestershire...
, but relocated to London, where they became prosperous merchants in hosiery and silk. Henry Edenborough was a sea captain and made several voyages to Australia between 1833 and 1837, deciding to settle there in 1840. He acquired a farm south of Goulburn known as 'Wollogorang' and built "a handsome two-storey brick and stone rubble building notable for its interesting French windows and its impressive outbuildings". This was the family home until 1854 when Henry and Margaret sold the property to John William Chisholm, and returned to England with their family of six children. Henry died in 1855 at Chesham Lodge in Surrey, aged 43. In 1861 the British census records show Edith, 14 years old, living with her widowed mother in Kensington
Kensington
Kensington is a district of west and central London, England within the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea. An affluent and densely-populated area, its commercial heart is Kensington High Street, and it contains the well-known museum district of South Kensington.To the north, Kensington is...
. The 1871 census shows her living with her sister Annie, noted as head of household, at 5 Sheffield Gardens in Kensington, in which year she was exhibiting her work in London.
She married the painter Arthur Murch
Arthur Murch
Arthur Murch Australian artist who won the Archibald Prize in 1949 with a portrait of Bonar Dunlop. He was interested in the French post-Impressionists, Cézanne and Seurat. His style later became more cubist. He was appointed as an official war artist for six months during the Second World War...
and moved to Rome
Rome
Rome is the capital of Italy and the country's largest and most populated city and comune, with over 2.7 million residents in . The city is located in the central-western portion of the Italian Peninsula, on the Tiber River within the Lazio region of Italy.Rome's history spans two and a half...
where she painted with Giovanni Costa
Giovanni Costa
Giovanni Costa , known as Nino, was an Italian landscape painter and revolutionary.-Biography:Costa was born in Rome...
, leader of the Macchiaioli group. In 1876 they both stayed in Venice. Olivia Rossetti Agresti
Olivia Rossetti Agresti
Olivia Rossetti Agresti was a British activist, author, editor, and interpreter. A member of one of England's most prominent artistic and literary families, her unconventional political trajectory began with anarchism, continued with the League of Nations, and ended with Italian fascism...
wrote: "Costa had a very high opinion of this artist's gifts and used to remember with pleasure how on that occasion they used to go out together to paint from nature at Fusino" (Agresti, 1904).
Edith Murch frequently exhibited from 1880 to 1890 at the Grosvenor Gallery
Grosvenor Gallery
The Grosvenor Gallery was an art gallery in London founded in 1877 by Sir Coutts Lindsay and his wife Blanche. Its first directors were J. Comyns Carr and Charles Hallé...
and the New Gallery
New Gallery (London)
The New Gallery was an art gallery founded at 121 Regent Street W., London, in 1888 by J. Comyns Carr and Charles Edward Hallé. Carr and Hallé had been co-directors of Sir Coutts Lindsay's Grosvenor Gallery, but resigned from that troubled gallery in 1887....
. In 1891 she married Matthew Ridley Corbet
Matthew Ridley Corbet
Matthew Ridley Corbet was a Victorian neoclassical painter who attended classes at the Slade School of Art under Alexander Davis Cooper and later at the Royal Academy Schools under Frederic Leighton, President of the Academy. Corbet went to Italy in 1880 and met Giovanni Costa, one of Leighton's...
, one of the Macchiaioli group's leading members, after which she exhibited mainly at the Royal Academy
Royal Academy
The Royal Academy of Arts is an art institution based in Burlington House on Piccadilly, London. The Royal Academy of Arts has a unique position in being an independent, privately funded institution led by eminent artists and architects whose purpose is to promote the creation, enjoyment and...
, visiting Italy and living in London for the remainder of her life.
