37 Isabel Codrington (1873-1943)

Portrait study of Isabel, by Philip Alexius de László, ca. 1909

Isabel Codrington was an award-winning painter from London, England. Isabel regularly showed art at the Royal Academy and Fine Art Society in London, The Royal Scottish Academy, the Royal Hibernian Academy (in Ireland), and the Paris Salon. She won a silver medal in the 1907 World Exhibition in Barcelona for her watercolor 'Iduna and the Eagle'. The poet Ezra Pound dedicated a sonnet to her in 1909.

'Isabel Codrington' by her brother-in-law, Byam Shaw, 1904

Isabel Codrington Pyke-Nott was born in the village of Swimbridge in Devon, England. Her parents were wealthy gentry, her father being a squire and amateur playwright, and her mother an amateur artist. When she was nine her family moved to London. Isabel and her elder sister Evelyn went to study art at various schools. They spent a year at Hastings and St Leonard's Schools of Art. Then they attended St. John's Wood School of Art. At 15 she enrolled at the Royal Academy School in London, where she won two medals. 

'Old Tramp'

In 1901, age 26, she married Paul Konody, an art critic and editor for the magazine The Artist. The couple lived in London and were active in artistic social circles. They had two daughters together, Pauline and Margaret, and Isabel held off painting as she raised them.

'Zillah Lee, Hawker'

In 1910 Isabel and her family traveled with friends to Italy. One of these friends was the art dealer Gustavus Mayer. Events on this trip led to Isabel and Paul divorcing in 1912 (he wrote a book on the trip, Through the Alps to the Apennines), with Isabel then marrying Gustavus the following year. In 1918, Isabel took up painting again, getting a commission to paint a memorial for the end of WWI.  

'The Beggars Are Coming to Town',

Isabel and Gustavus then moved to the village of Woldingham in nearby Surrey, in a mock-Tudor mansion named Wistler's Wood, where she continued painting, the rest of her life. From 1930 to the end of her life Isabel began etching, making many excellent prints. Toward the end of her life she returned to Devon, where she died.

'A Vagrant'

'Onion Johnny'

'The Fruit Sellers'

'The Blouse Shop', 1923

'The Kitchen', 1927

'Lady Reading'

'Cantine Franco-Britannique, Vitry-le-Francois', 1919

'Morning', 1920-34

'Evening', 1927

'Girl Reading'

'Agnes'

'Phoebe'

'Peasant Girl'

'Ash Tree Farm'

'Wild Thyme Farm'

'The Ploughed Field', 1927

'Still Life with Vegetables', ca. 1923

'The Green Bowl'

'The China Duck', ca. 1927

'The Lily Garden', ca. 1935

'Still Life with Tin Cans', 1927

'Grand’mère Cottet', 1934

'The Old Violinist', ca. 1930

'The Onion Rover', ca. 1930

'The Monastery on the Hill', ca. 1930

'The Vegetable Stall', ca. 1930

'Courtyard, Bamberg', ca. 1930

'The Bridge, Bamberg', ca. 1930

'A Quiet Evening', ca. 1930

'March', ca. 1930

'The Window of Trees', ca. 1930

'Ash Patterns', ca. 1930

'Coming Storm', 1934

'Chalk Pit Works', ca 930

Some notes taken from Elizabethharvey-lee.com and Lyonandturnbull.com