Emma Aloysia Novello (1814-1902)

Media credit University of Leeds

Emma Aloysia Novello was born 17 December 1814 and known to the family as ‘Emmy’. From April 1831 she was educated at an Augustinian convent school in Bruges. Like her elder brother Edward Petre Novello, Emma attended the drawing academy of (John) Henry Sass at 6 Charlotte Street in Bloomsbury, London. Despite her aptitude, she could not continue her studies because women were excluded from the Royal Academy Schools until 1860. Instead she studied the collections of the Louvre in Paris and continued to practice as an artist and define her profession as such.

In April 1859 she signed a petition calling for the Royal Academy of Arts to admit women into its schools, which was sent to all 40 of the Academicians and published in the Athenæum journal on 30 April 1859, p. 581. Emma remained unmarried and took several solo trips to Rome. In 1864 she stayed at the Palazzo Poli in Rome, where she was described by family acquaintances as ‘a middle-aged woman of culture and charm’.

In later life Emma suffered from ‘melancholic mania’ thought to have been caused by prolonged caring responsibilities for her aunt, Catherine Collins (Mary Sabilla Novello’s sister) who had been seriously injured in a carriage accident. Her brother (Joseph) Alfred Novello had her committed to a private asylum on 28 July 1882 as a ‘person of unsound mind’ when she was 67 years old. Otto House Lunatic Asylum was located at North End Road in Hammersmith, West London, and accommodated around 30 women at a time. The large house had a walled garden and separate cottages for patients to be isolated from others. According to a report by the Commissioners in Lunacy published in 1882, some of the patients were allowed to take carriage rides and ‘attend places of public entertainment’ and the average cost was £200.

Emma was not included in the distribution of her parent’s legacy. (Joseph) Alfred accused her of not being able to look after money and took legal action to secure control of her finances following the death of Catherine Collins. He did, however, make provisions for Emma’s care to continue to be paid for after his death in 1896. She remained at Otto House until her own death in 1902.