Richard Cobden and the Novellos

Emma Aloysia Novello’s Portrait of Richard Cobden

A focused study of the 1861 portrait of the politician Richard Cobden by the artist Emma Aloysia Novello, supported by an Understanding British Portraits Fellowship in 2024.

The portrait

Emma Aloysia Novello painted an oil sketch of the politician Richard Cobden in Paris during May 1861, following his negotiation of what would become known as the Cobden–Chevalier Treaty. It was presented to the Brotherton Library at the University of Leeds in 1953.

BC MS NCC/20/297 Emma Novello to (Joseph) Alfred Novello 17 August 1870 1

The lost second portrait

Emma Novello's correspondence with her brother, (Joseph) Alfred Novello, reveals the existence of a second untraced portrait of Richard Cobden painted from memory, exhibited in 1868 and 1869; although praised by strangers, her attempts to sell it to Alfred for £25 were rejected due to his dissatisfaction with the likeness, possession of other portraits of Cobden and concerns about Emma's intended use of the money for travel to Paris and Rome.

BC MS NCC/9/1/64 Sketch of Clara Novello by Edward Petre Novello

Richard Cobden and the Novellos

Richard Cobden's connections with the Novello family contributed to the repeal of 'Taxes on Knowledge' following Cobden's successful negotiation of the Cobden–Chevalier Treaty, a free trade agreement between England and France that improved European relations.

BC MS NCC/10/4/1 untitled oil sketch [portrait of Emma Aloysia Novello by Henry Sass]

Emma Novello’s early life and education

Emma Aloysia Novello studied at an Augustinian convent school in Belgium before beginning her art education at John Henry Sass's drawing academy in London. She was prevented from continuing her training at the Royal Academy Schools because they did not yet admit women as students.

Emma Novello’s artistic practice

Emma Novello's artistic practice was most visible in public between 1859 and 1869, through participation in temporary exhibitions and involvement in advocating for women's admission to the Royal Academy Schools.

BC MS NCC/10/3/1 Copy of Notice of Admission 1

Emma Novello’s later life

Emma Novello was diagnosed with 'melancholic mania' due to caring responsibilities for an elderly aunt and was institutionalised by her older brother (Joseph) Alfred Novello, spending two decades at Otto House Lunatic Asylum until her death in 1902.

Emma Novello in context

Emma Novello's pursuit of an artistic career, supported by her family's cultural connections and financial stability, challenged social norms and gender restrictions of her time, despite the institutional barriers and economic dependencies she faced as a woman artist in mid-nineteenth-century Britain.

Bibliography

A bibliography related to research on the artist Emma Novello, the politician Richard Cobden and the social, political, economic and cultural conditions in which they lived and worked.

The radical politician Richard Cobden first saw Clara Anastasia Novello perform at the Manchester Music Festival in 1836 while she was still a teenager. Her sister Emma Novello contributed £1 to the Anti-Corn Law League in 1843, three years before the repeal for which Cobden had so strongly campaigned. Cobden continued to correspond with Clara and Emma and the Novello Cowden Clarke Collection contains letters between (Joseph) Alfred Novello and Cobden between 1859 and 1860, related to their joint involvement with the Association for the Promotion of the Repeal of the Taxes on Knowledge. Cobden stayed with the family at Maison Quaglia in Nice in March 1860 and visited Clara Novello in Paris later the same year, during breaks in the negotiation of what would become known as the Cobden–Chevalier Treaty.

The Treaty not only resulted in a mutually beneficial free trade deal between France and Britain, but also informed similar agreements between other European countries in the second half of the nineteenth century. In the longer term the Treaty reduced the tax burden on the British public because it improved relations and eased fears of a French invasion by Napoleon III, therefore limiting the escalation in naval capacity that had already overstretched the economies of both nations.

Cobden’s diplomatic success in France was coupled with the resolution of the longstanding campaign against ‘Taxes on Knowledge’, the collective term for taxes on the import of foreign books and on advertisements, newspapers and paper itself. Over the course of the decade before 1861 the Association for the Promotion of the Repeal of the Taxes on Knowledge fought for the repeal of the advertisement duty, the newspaper stamp and excise on paper. The Novellos were invested in the campaign because the taxes had a negative impact on their music publishing business. (Joseph) Alfred Novello acted as sub-Treasurer of the Association, provided funds to support their activity and used his influence to initiate press support. Successive victories culminated in the repeal of paper duties in 1861.

As such, when Emma Novello painted Cobden’s portrait in Paris during May 1861, it marked a particularly significant moment in British and wider European history as the reduction of tariffs promoted peace between England and France and the repeal of ‘Taxes on Knowledge’ resulted in the transformation of journalism, proliferation of newspapers and increasing democratisation of print culture over the course of the following decades.