MASTERPIECES FROM THE BEN URI COLLECTION
themes of
LILY DELISSA JOSEPH (1863-1940)
SELF-PORTRAIT WITH CANDLES (AKA A PORTRAIT OF THE PAINTER)
1895 Oil on canvas
Signed (lower left) with monogram of initial
LILY DELISSA JOSEPH
Lily Delissa Joseph’s Self-Portrait with Candles (also known as A Portrait of the Painter) is an evocative and introspective work that merges personal identity, religious observance, and the performative act of painting Likely painted during the interwar years, the years, the composition depicts the artist holding a pair of Sabbbath candlesticks, poised in the traditional Jewish ritual of lighting candles at the onset of Shabbat This act, typically performed by women, underscores Joseph’s observant Jewish identity and her commitment to expressing female agency within spiritual and cultural frameworks Executed in a subdued, tonal palette of rich browns, blacks, and soft highlights typical of Joseph’s experimental chromatic restraint the portrait is characterised by an atmospheric softness and an almost theatrical illumination that lends the figure an ethereal solemnity The painter’s upward gaze and gentle poise suggest both spiritual reverence and self-awareness, aligning her artistic identity with the sacred domestic space. Joseph’s practice was rooted in a progressive intersection of gender, religion, and creativity. This painting, with its blend of secular self-portraiture and sacred ritual gesture, serves as a visual manifesto of Jewish female subjectivity Her use of traditional Judaic symbolism within a modern painterly idiom asserts both her individuality and her place within the broader narrative of Jewish and feminist artistic expression
Lily Delissa Joseph (née Leah Alice Solomon) was born to an Anglo-Jewish father, Joseph Solomon, and an Austrian-Jewish mother Helena (née Lichtenstadt) in Bermondsey, London, England on 24 June 1863 She was one of 11 siblings and her older brother was the artist Solomon J Solomon, RA (1860–1927) She trained
at the Ridley School of Art and the Royal Academy of Art, becoming a portrait, landscape and interior painter and established a studio in Bedford Row, London, overlooking the Old Bailey She first exhibited with the Society of Portrait Painters in 1891, as well as the New English Art Club (1888–1890s), the Women's International Art Club of which she was a member (1902–04, and posthumously, 1963), the Society of Women Artists, and at the Royal Academy (1905–38), as well as in the Paris Salons (silver medal, 1929; gold medal, 1934) and at the Glasgow Institute of the Fine Arts and Walker Gallery in Liverpool. In 1923 she exhibited in the exhibition of works by Jewish artists at the Whitechapel Art Gallery and in 1927 showed two paintings (including a portrait of her brother) in the Exhibition of Jewish Art and Antiquities at the same venue She became known for her experimentation with a limited palette of white, cobalt, rose madder, orange madder and black
Deeply involved with women's suffrage, she was famously unable to attend her own Private View for her exhibition Some London and Country Interiors' at the Baillie Gallery, London in 1912 after being detained at Holloway Gaol on a charge in connection with the movement. An advertisement to this effect was placed by her husband, the architect Delissa Joseph F R I B A (1859–1927) , whom she had married in 1887, and who was very supportive of women's rights An early cyclist, she was one of the first women to own and drive a car (motoring to Palestine in the 1920s), and also learnt to fly aeroplanes when in her fifties A committed member of the Jewish community, she was also involved in many charitable ventures In 1911 she met the young poet Isaac Rosenberg when painting at he National Gallery (she depicted its interior in at least twelve paintings including 'The Art Gallery' Ben Uri Collection) She employed Rosenberg briefly as a tutor to her children and her sister Mrs Henrietta Lowy Solomon did the same, before introducing him to their wealthier friend Mrs Herbert Cohen, who sponsored Rosenberg's studies at the Slade School of Fine Art. Lily Delissa Joseph was also religiously observant and well-known for her musical voice in the communal singing at the Brook Green synagogue in Hammersmith (having also been active in its establishment)
In 1924 she had a joint exhibition with her husband Delissa Joseph, exhibiting 61 of her paintings (not for sale) alongside 64 of his drawings at the Suffolk Street Galleries. During her later years, she also exhibited at Ben Uri Gallery in the 'Opening of the Ben Uri Jewish Art Gallery and an Exhibition of Works by Jewish Artists, Woburn House' in 1934 and the annual exhibition in 1937 Delissa Joseph built two of her brother Solomon's studios including one at Birchington-on-Sea in Kent, where Solomon had a bungalow, Whitecliffe, from 1907 onwards and the Delissa Josephs had a summer house, North Sea Lodge Both brother and sister painted studies of their Birchington interiors In 1937 her 'Roofs, High Holborn' was purchased by the Chantrey Bequest for the Tate Gallery Lily Delissa Joseph died in London, England on 24 July 1940 In 1946 the Ben Uri Art Society held a joint exhibition of paintings by Solomon J Solomon and Lily Delissa Joseph at its London Gallery She was also included posthumously in the group exhibition Jewish Artists of Great Britain, 1845-1945 at the Belgrave Gallery, London in 1978. Her work is represented in UK Collections including the Ben Uri Collection and Tate.
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