Famous Faces of Torbay: The world-renowned artist who made Paignton her home

Read Part One HERE

Having lived in Canada from 1890, Charlotte exhibited her work in the Ontario Society of Arts, the Toronto Industrial Exhibition and even the Women’s Art Association of Canada where she had been a founder member. 

She continued to work on her human illustrations etc, for books and amazingly even completed some for a poet prayer book written by a clergyman in Devonshire England. His book titled “Now the days are over” was by the Reverend Sabine Baring who had it published in Britain. 

But in the 1890’s, Charlotte sadly lost her husband and so moved to Springfield close to the River Credit Mississauga where she even had a studio built in Mount Woodham. She taught members of the settlement about the art of painting and also became an active volunteer for the community, even playing the organ regularly at the Anglican Church in St Peters Springfield.

Her late husband had lost one daughter before his own death and when Charlotte finally decided to return home in 1898 we can only assume she arranged for the remaining two children to go into the care of the Weymouth family.

On her arrival in England, she now chose Devonshire like her late friend Elizabeth Browning and moved into Paignton where she named her house “Mount Woodham” on Cleveland Road,  She now spent the last twenty two years of her life in retirement here from a very long successful career as an artist. However we know she continued to paint here for the rest of her life. 

Having accumulated a huge portfolio of paintings in Canada, these were now officially listed in Britain under what I think was a pertinent title  “Women Artist’s with positions on Governing Bodies” in Canada.

To me, it suggested Canada had recognised her as paving the way for all female painters in that country. In fact this was virtually confirmed later by officials admitting “Constance Schreiber had been a powerful voice” in Canada. Her strength for this came from the fact she had completed all her training in Britain and as the Canadian report confirms “this had allowed her to carry over European stylistic changes in art to Canada”.

It was this that helped her lead the countries artistic maturity. The final phrase in the report includes  “her work epitomised the realist movement by her influence of both neoclassicism and romanticism”. This became clearer when her portrait of two girls playing in the winter snow then helped a child onto their sleigh before all three safely negotiated the run down a hill.  Today in Canada their national list of her portraits is twelve, all completed between 1876 - 1985.

But now Charlotte living at Mount Woodham in Paignton, as the census of 1901 confirms would by the time of the next census in 1910 have become interested in the Women’s National Anti Suffrage (WNAS)  league. This occurred when she entertained a Violet Graham at her home who was an earliest activist and importantly a friend of the Duchess of Montrose who been involved setting up the WNAS and now was it’s leader. Amazingly, this aristocrat in July that year was chosen by the Royal family to be one of the four canopy bearers at the official anointing ceremony of Queen Alexandria - part of the Coronation of King Edward V11.  

We can appreciate it was Charlotte’s history which determined what she could capture in her paintings but now this included political issues and whether she joined those early suffragettes in Torquay we do not know. In Torquay certainly Elsie Howey joined the “NATIONAL UNION OF WOMEN’S SUFFRAGE SOCIETIES” (NUWSS) and later even joined the more militant group - “WOMEN’S SOCIAL AND POLITICAL UNION” (WSPU) being far more belligerent and taking direct action, often against commercial premises. Elsie was eventually arrested and jailed for demonstrating with others outside of the House of Commons.

Meanwhile Mrs Charlotte Mount-Brock Schreiber’s paintings were now popular in London with professionals and with her literary connections including Mr Barrett-Browning (Elizabeth had died in 1861 in Florence) when he came home. He wrote to Charlotte to express “his great pleasure” with her illustrations which had been used in an edition of his wife’s book “The Rhyme of the Duchess May”. 

Mrs Charlotte Mount- Brock Schreiber finally died on June 3rd 1922 aged eighty eight and today she lies still in the towns main cemetery on Ailscombe Road Paignton while over in Toronto, Canada they erected a large square “Blue Plaque” in her honour.  

This famous female artist spent all her retirement years in Paignton, yet today few remember her name in spite of her portfolio of pictures, portraits and illustrations around the world.