George P. A. Healy: Miss Phipps

"Portrait of Mrs. Word" by George Healy

"In the spring of 1836 I went to London for the first time. I there exhibited a portrait of Mr. Francis Place and it was liked. Joseph Hume, the radical Member of Parliament, wrote to me that if he could hope to have as good a portrait of himself he would willingly sit to me.

It was while I was at work in London that I first met my wife. I had become acquainted with a Mrs. Hanley, who one day brought her young sister, Miss Louisa Phipps, to my studio. I met the ladies on the stairs as I was running to keep some engagement. I gave them the key of the room and excused myself. But this glimpse on the stairs was enough to fix my future destiny.

A miniature painter named Dubourjal, my dearest and best friend, had accompanied me to London. He asked permission to make a watercolor drawing of this young girl. I still have the portrait. I followed the progress of the work with great interest, and somehow the young sitter was almost as often in my painting room as in my friend's - to his great annoyance.

In the summer of 1839 I was recalled to France. I asked Miss Phipps whether she would go with me, as my wife. We had no time to make wedding preparations, and we were both too poor to think of anything but our happiness; which perhaps, after all, was not a bad way of beginning life. 

We were married one morning at the St. Pancras Parish Church, Euston Road, London, assisted by three or four friends only. My wife wore her travelling dress, for we started for Paris as soon as the ceremony was over. I shall never forget the look of pity which the clergyman cast upon the bride. I fear he did not consider me a responsible sort of person. 

When I see young people, in our practical age, hesitate to marry because their means will not allow them to have a fine house and every comfort from the very first, I cannot help thinking of our modest beginning. It was  not a complicated way of living, but it never struck us that we were not the happiest mortals under the sun."

To be continued

(Excerpts from "Reminiscences of a Portrait Painter" by G. P. A. Healy.)