Henrietta Montalba

Henrietta Skerrett Montalba (1856–1893), British sculptor, was the youngest of the four daughters of Anthony Rubens Montalba and Emeline Montalba, all of whom attained high repute as artists. Born in London, Montalba studied first at the Royal College of Art in South Kensington, and then in the Accademia at Venice. Later she became a pupil of Jules Dalou, the French sculptor, during his residence in London. Montalba first exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1876, and her work was often seen at the Grosvenor Gallery, the New Gallery, and elsewhere.

She mainly devoted herself to portrait or fancy busts; some executed in marble, like those of Doctor Mezger of Amsterdam (Grosvenor Gallery, 1886), and Dr. Schollander, the Scandinavian artist; others in bronze, like that of the Marquess of Lorne; but the greater part of her work was executed in terra cotta, as in the case of her bust of Robert Browning (Grosvenor Gallery, 1883). Other works worthy of note were "A Dalecarlian Peasant Woman" and "The Raven," representing a raven seated on a bust of Pallas, from the poem by Edgar Allen Poe. Her last work was of a more ambitious nature, being a life-size figure of "A Venetian Boy Catching a Crab," executed in bronze, which was exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1893, and at the World's Columbian Exposition, Chicago, in the same year.

Montalba was never separated from her family, residing in later days chiefly at Venice, and making frequent visits with them in Italy, Sweden, and elsewhere. Besides her artistic gifts she possessed great linguistic talent. In 1892 her health began to fail her, and after a lingering illness she died in Venice, on September 14, 1893, and was buried near her father in the cemetery of San Michele.

She was on terms of friendship with the Princess Louise, Duchess of Argyll, who painted a portrait of her and presented it to the Canadian Academy of Arts in Ottawa (now in the collection of the National Gallery of Canada).

References

Modified from "The Dictionary of National Biography," 1909, 13:724.