Florence Kate Upton Art

Florence Kate Upton was born in New York in 1873, the daughter of English émigrés to America. Following the death of her father in 1889, she returned with her mother to England and began painting and illustrating to assist her family financially. Together with her mother Bertha, she devised the Golliwog books, Bertha writing the stories while her daughter made the illustrations. Although she made her living largely through illustration. She was nonetheless a very accomplished painter in her own right, described by her biographer, Edith Lyttleton as”'a considerable artist . . . accessible beyond the normal to sense impressions of color and form.” Upton studied under George Hitchcock in Egmond Hoef, Holland and became great friends with both George and Mrs. Hitchcock. She exhibited at the Paris Salon and the Royal Academy, including several paintings depicting Holland, with which she had a particular affinity. In 1905, she exhibited “Le salon Jaune” at the International Exhibition in Nantes and gained the Médaille d’honneur. After the exhibition, Florence was made “Sociétaire” of the “Société Nationale des Beaux-Arts.” After her death, the picture was purchased by the “Friends of Art” society in Baltimore and now hangs in their gallery. She was also an excellent portraitist and her subjects included her friend, the celebrated actress Mrs. Patrick Campbell, indeed Upton's portrait was considered to be one of the finest of her and the actress cherished it until her death in 1940. In March 1917, Christie's opened a 12-day sale, which was an interesting feature of the third day, where the original Golliwog and his Dutch Doll companions, with the original drawings and MSS of the eleven famous Golliwog books, were presented by Upton herself. The set of dolls has since been presented to the London Museum. The amount Florence raised was used to purchase a Golliwog ambulance that was sent to the front in France. She died on 16th October 1922 and is buried in Hampstead Cemetery. Her obituary in The Times rightly recognized that she was first a painter and second a children's book illustrator.