Regency Women of Character: Amelia Noel

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Amelia Noel, born Minka Levy, was an artist who specialized in landscapes.  Supporting herself as a drawing mistress, she exhibited many works between 1795 an 1804 and worked primarily with pastels.  She was also a noted etcher and engraver, which was unusual for a woman at that time.

An advertisment in the Times in 1799 proclaimed Mrs. A Noel of 38 St. Jame’s Place a provider of ladies lessons in “drawing & painting (in oil, water colours and crayons) landscapes, figures, cattle flowers, transparencies &c” for 2 guineas for 12 monthly lessons (http://www.pastellists.com/Articles/NoelA.pdf)

As a drawing mistress, she taught the daughters of George III and was under the patronage of the Princess of Wales:
The Picture of London, for 1803

A later advertisment in 1803 in the Morning Post offered:

 

 

(http://www.pastellists.com/Articles/NoelA.pdf)

Minka’s father was prominent American merchant Judah Levy.  She married Henry Noel nee Zvi Noah at the Great Synagogue in London in 1781. (http://noel.mcn.org/NoelandNoahConnection.htm).

Her husband  went bankrupt and left her with four children and destitute, requiring her to actively seek work.  She was taken to court for a debt in Horn v. Noel   (The Literary Panorama, and National Register, 1808) for which she ultimately prevailed because the debt for coal would have been under her husband’s responsibilities (‘From One End of the Earth to the Other’…, 2010).  At the time she was “a lady of celebrity at the west end of town” (The Satirist: Or Monthly Meteor, 1808).

Her daughter, Frances Laura would go on to be an artist (Mrs. John Bell) of some note.

Mrs. Noel was later rumored to be artist Mather Brown’s lover, and it is said he submitted her portrait as no. 75.  I found references to at least three portraits but could not locate the actual images.  Disappointing, because one reference cited a painting by Sir Joshua Reynolds, who has some beautiful Georgian portraits.

Amelia died in 1818 at the age of 58 in Picadilly (The Gentleman’s Magazine, 1818).