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Gustav(e) Schwabe was born on 10 October 1813 in Hamburg, Germany. When his father Philipp Benjamin left the Jewish community and joined the Lutheran church in 1819 Gustav was christened Gustav Christian. In June 1842 he married Helen Dugdale, the daughter of John Dugdale of Liverpool (<--- 3 page pdf on the Dugdale family of Wroxall Abbey showing GCS on page 2) and the sister of John Dugdale of Dovecot House and Llwn Estate, Wales. Gustav died on 10 January 1897 at his home No. 19 Kensington Palace Gardens, London and he was buried at Henley on Thames on 18 January. His wife Helen died at Kensington Palace Gardens on 26 October 1898. They had no children. Note that in 1842 GCS went into partnership with Adam Sykes and Benjamin Rutter - this Adam Sykes was related to the Sykes who married Stephan Schwabe. How exactly has to be determined. For a very brief summary of the Sykes Schwabe Company and the connection to Thomas Hanbury click here. An article appeared in the Art Journal of 1886 summarizing Gustav's collection and can be downloaded here in PDF. A page from British History Online mentions GCS's house (No 19 Kensington Palace Gardens) and can be viewed here (<--- external link). A list of the paintings Schwabe donated to the Hamburg Kunsthalle can be found here. Pictured below is Yewden Manor painted by a member of the circle of artists that Schwabe surrounded himself with. "In 1871 Yewden Manor had been rented from W. H. Smith by an interesting character named Gustav Schwabe, who continued to live there until his death in 1897. He was born in Hamburg in 1813 and was a prominent patron of the arts in his day, eventually leaving his collection of pictures to his native city [For which bequest he was made an honorary citizen in 1886. This was the first time Hamburg had made the honor since Otto von Bismarck and General Helmut von Moltke in 1871. Schwabe was followed by Johannes Brahms in 1889, by General von Waldersee (who commanded the German troops sent to put down the Boxer Rebellion) in 1901, and by General von Hindenburg in 1917.]. He gathered about him at Yewden a number of artists known as the "St. John's Wood Clique", many of them Royal Academicians. (They included G. D. Leslie, P. H. Calderon, W. F. Calderon, C. B. Stoney, J. E. Hodgson, H. T. Wells and W. F. Yeames). Schwabe, although only a tenant, not only added the south wing and a portion of the centre (indicated by the lower line of the roof) to the Manor House, but also built a number of flint and brick cottages in the village. After Schwabe's death in 1897, a there was a succession of tenants which brings us up to 1953.
In the book 'Art and Anecdote: Recollections of William Frederick Yeames,
R.A. His life and his friends' by Yeames's niece M. H. Stephen Smith some insight into the life and
character of Gustav Schwabe is given and below are some extracts from that work.
"In 1876 came a delightful picture named "The Last Bit of Scandal." We see a rosy
dawn breaking over an old Georgian street of cobbled stones flanked by red
bricked walls. Two elegant sedan chairs have stopped and from their raised roofs
a poudre lady and gentleman are eagerly recounting to each other the latest
tit-bit of gossip.
It was purchased by Mr. Schwabe, a great picture lover. For some years it was
hung in his house (more a picture gallery than a house) in [No. 19 Kensington]
Palace Gardens, but was eventually transferred with the rest of his collection
as a gift to Hamburg, the town of his birth. About which more anon.
He used to send me toffee, special Everton toffee, ordered expressly from
Everton itself. The parcel would be wrapped in brown paper and carried with
immense dignity by a magnificent footman from the carriage into comb Lodge.
Little acts of kindness; but typical of the giver, for if it was toffee for me,
it was probably other things for other people. Outside the matter of toffee Mrs.
Schwabe endeared herself to me (such is romantic girlhood) by telling me how she
first met her husband. I do not know whether it was the romance of the whole
thing, which included a real old-fashioned coach, or because Mrs. Schwabe was so
tall and dignified, and Mr. Schwabe so small and thin, with his big nose and
black skull-cap, but the story I treasured was that when Mrs. Schwabe, or rather
Miss Dugdale, was young, she happened to be taking a journey in a coach which
was very crowded and uncomfortable. Seated next to her was a strange young man.
Of course, neither spoke to the other. It must have been a long journey, for by
night she became so tired that she fell asleep, and only awoke next morning,
much refreshed, to find her head pillowed on the shoulder of the strange young
man beside her, who had remained motionless the whole night through so as to
enable her to repose in comfort.
His kindness impressed her so much that a friendship was begun which ended in
matrimony.
Mr. Schwabe was a very shrewd man, one of the originators, I believe, of the
White Star Line and the founder of the great shipbuilding works of Harland and
Wolff. He used to tell my uncle he had made a combination of brains and money
when he formed that partnership.
His great hobby was pictures, and he at last collected so many that he told me
he really had to stop buying them because he had had to put the last one under a
bed, as there was not a spare bit of wall left in the house! His taste was
excellent, and he never bought what was in fashion, but what he saw was really
good, and therefore appealed to him personally ; for he lived with his pictures,
and positively loved them. When his collection went to Hamburg, he had
engravings of them hung in their places.
[A Later Chapter ...] About this time my uncle's old friend, Mr. Schwabe, beginning to feel the years grow heavy upon him, decided to present his valuable collection of English Masters to his native town of Hamburg. Passionately fond as he was of his paintings, he generously determined to make it a gift, not a legacy with attendant death duties. So he contented himself with engravings of his favourites in place of the originals, and asked his two friends, Mr. Calderon and my uncle, to go over to Hamburg to superintend the hanging of his treasures.
Knowing what a magnificent gift Mr. Schwabe was presenting, and the extreme generosity and self-denial entailed in the giving, the two friends were furious at this treatment and refused to begin the work of hanging. A deadlock ensued, whilst they placed the matter before Mr. Schwabe. The old gentleman was terribly upset to think his gift should be received in such a cavalier spirit, but he wired back the three words: "Proceed with work." The two friends were almost too annoyed to do so at first, but eventually they decided this would still further upset the kind old man. So they started grudgingly upon their work, doing the best they could with the wretched accommodation accorded them, but having, to their grief, to sky gems and hide masterpieces in corners. [Left Gustav with his wife Helen painted by Philip H. Calderon R.A.] But before they had quite finished, sightseers from the other rooms began to trickle in, and the news quickly spread that a wonderful collection of pictures had found its way to the town. And then the authorities began suddenly to realize that no one was looking at their original collection. The gift horse's mouth was then examined, and the municipality awoke to the fact that they had become possessed of what was at that time one of the finest collections of modern English Masters. Then the tide turned, and things began to readjust themselves chiefly in the gastronomic direction, for my uncle said that the banquets given them by the Burghers of Hamburg to show their appreciation were the most wonderful he had ever experienced. They were hours in length, marvels of gastronomy, and most thoroughly appreciated by the givers themselves, who would spend these hours (literally) in sheer joyous concentration and absorption (in more ways than one). In the end, the two honoured guests confided to each other that they would almost be thankful to return to the cold mutton of domesticity. To Mr. Schwabe himself the Hamburgians presented the Freedom of the City, an honour, I believe, he shared with Bismarck alone. He showed me the document soon after it arrived. It was enshrined behind gilt doors in a gorgeous frame, which opened to reveal an exquisite little painting by Meissonier, behind which again was the precious parchment of the "Freedom." NOTE ON YEAMES.
Yeames lived in Grove End Road, St John's Wood, London. The St John's Wood Clique, of which he was a prominent member, was an informal group of like-minded friends whose regular members included Philip Hermogenes Calderon, George Dunlop Leslie, Henry Stacy Marks, John Evans Hodgson, George Augustus Storey and David Wilkie Wynfield. Known for their love of amateur dramatics and practical jokes their jovial company frequently extended to include many other artists of the day. The core of the group held weekly meetings at their homes, to draw together, discuss art, gossip and to generally exchange ideas. They often spent summers together, either staying in one another's country houses, in the homes of their friends or occasionally renting properties. A favourite and memorable rental was Hever Castle in Kent, which provided the interior settings for several of their pictures. Another recollection of Schwabe from OUR RIVER BY GEORGE D. LESLIE, R.A.
In the spring of the year 1878 I renewed my acquaintance with the river by
spending a week at my friend Mr. Schwabe’s house, called Yewden, at Hambledon.
Here also were Messrs. Calderon, Wells, Storey, Hodgson, and Yeames, and as we
had all just got rid of our works for the Academy, our spirits were high. Mr. Schwabe’s house is a very old one, with some modern additions to it of his own. These were executed in great taste, as it is almost impossible to distinguish which of the gables are old and which new. The house takes its name from the very remarkable old clipped yew avenue, with a sort of nave and transept in it. The garden, lawns, and flower-beds are most admirably managed. Instead of the ordinary stripes of red, yellow, grey, and beet-root colour, with which the thick-headed Scotch gardener usually decorates the flower borders of the wealthy, here, at Mr. Schwabe’s own direction, patchwork and ribbon borders are unknown, and two large sloping banks are planted in glorious profusion and irregularity with every sort of English flower. Pansies of every shade, masses of wallflowers, peonies, polyanthuses, poppies, campanulas, lilies, and a host of others, all growing and blowing in the greatest beauty, and filling the air with delicious perfume. The little Hamble brook flows through the lawn in front of the house, reminding me a good deal of the one at Ewelme. It is not, however, quite as large as the Ewelme one, and has a nasty trick of running dry in some years. I had some punting in Mr. Schwabe’s punt, amusing myself by trying my skills in the eddies below the weir; and as there was a good stream on, found it most invigorating work. The river is not, however, very inviting in the early spring, especially when a backward one, as this was; the weeds and flowers have scarcely begun to show at all. Mr. Schwabe is very fond of sailing boats, and has quite a little fleet of cutters moored off his boat-house; the reach from Hambledon to Henley is very well adapted for sailing, and in the summer time he gets up a sailing regatta here, which is a very pretty sight, especially when the wind blows fresh. The reach from the weir up to Hedsor Lock is generally allowed to be the most beautiful of any on the river; it certainly is a very stately and noble bit of scenery. There are three eyots, which divide the river in the middle of the reach into four streams, the most charming and romantic of which is the one on the Cliveden side. Mr. Calderon made his studies for his picture of the lovers in a boat, entitled “ Sighing his Soul into his Lady’s Face”, from the banks of the Cliveden woods; this picture has found its way back to the river again, for it now belongs to Mr. Schwabe, and hangs in his house at Hambledon.
Below GCS's home at No 19 Kensington Palace Gardens, Kensington. His opposite neighbor at No. 12 was Samuel Montagu.
Below are interior shots of Broughton Hall in 1888. The hall was built by Schwabe and had a vast glass conservatory in which he grew the many flowers that he entered into various horticultural shows, many of which he won.
NOTES ON DUGDALE: Dugdale, John Marshall, B.A. Brasenose Coll., Oxford, from Rugby, a member of the Northern circuit, J.P. co. Montgomery, captain Montgomeryshire yeomanry cavalry, a student of the Inner Temple 18 Jan., 1871 (then aged 19), called to the bar 26 Jan., 1875 (eldest son of John Dugdale, Esq., of Llwyn, Llanfyllin, co. Montgomery); born,1851; married, 1876, Isabella, only daughter of James Hargreaves, Esq., of Spring Bank, Pendleton, co. Lancaster, and has issue. The Hermitage, Holmes Chapel, Cheshire; Oxford and Cambridge Club. | |||||||||||||||
They gladly consented, but to their disgust, on arriving at Hamburg, they found
that instead of the pictures going to the fine gallery that Mr. Schwabe had
himself given to the town, two wretched rooms at the end of the municipal
galleries had been allotted to them.
William Frederick Yeames was born in 1835 in Taganrog, Southern Russia, where
his father was British Consul. After an early education in Dresden and following
the death of his father the family returned to live in London in 1848. Here he
studied under Westmacott, taking anatomy and composition lessons from George
Scharf. In 1852 he journeyed to Florence and Rome and in 1859 he returned to
London, initially setting up a studio in Park Place and exhibiting his first
work at the Royal Academy where he was to become a regular exhibitor. He was
also a prolific exhibitor at many other major British venues including the
British Institute, Royal Society of British Artists, Grosvenor Gallery and
elsewhere. In 1866 he was elected an Associate of the Royal Academy, becoming a
full member in 1878 and retiring in 1913. He specialized in well-known scenes
from English history, usually of the Elizabethan or Cromwellian periods, e.g.
Lady Jane Grey in the Tower (Sheffield, City Art Gallery), Death of Amy Robsart
(Tate Gallery), Prince Arthur and Hubert (Manchester, City Art Gallery) etc.
Perhaps his best-known work is the Victorian icon of history painting: "And When
Did You Last See Your Father?" (Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool).
