Joséphine Bowes

Joséphine Coffin-Chevallier was born in Paris in 1825, the daughter of a clock-maker. Little is known about her early life before she joined the Théâtre des Variétés in Paris in 1847, the year she met wealthy landowner and businessman John Bowes, a successful racehorse breeder and owner and former Liberal MP for South Durham.

Taking the stage name Mlle Delorme, as John’s protégée she was given more leading roles with commensurate salaries, but her reviews weren’t always complimentary. Although John later purchased the theatre, she gave up the stage following their marriage in 1852 as it would have been deemed socially unacceptable. Though their union was an unusual occurrence - men rarely marrying mistresses - it was not totally unequal, since both were outsiders from formal society; he born out of wedlock, she the daughter of an artisan, acting in vaudeville theatre.

With the support and money of her husband behind her, Joséphine could take part in the luxurious social life of France’s Second Empire by hosting dinners, parties and salons where writers, musicians, artists, minor aristocracy and intellectuals could meet, offering her the opportunity to develop her taste, knowledge and appreciation of beauty. According to the Revue Critique – a celebrity magazine of the 1860s – ‘The salons of Madame Bowes are counted among the most brilliant in Paris ...

Following her marriage, Joséphine turned her attention to painting in a world where there were few opportunities for women to train and exhibit their work. Despite these drawbacks, she became a remarkably accomplished painter, with her landscapes exhibited at the Paris Salon on four occasions and at the Royal Academy in London. As ever, she was fully aware of the latest trends, with her paintings showing the influence of Gustave Corbet’s landscapes and her purchases of contemporary artists’ work including several precursors to the Impressionists.

John Bowes always maintained that Joséphine conceived the idea of the museum. She was possibly the first woman to be fully involved in setting up a public museum and art gallery which would include her name in its title. This was a remarkable ambition in an era when married women in England could not even hold property in their own name.’

From the early 1860s the Museum venture became uppermost in Joséphine and John’s lives. Joséphine sold her château at Louveciennes – a wedding gift from her husband – and with the proceeds they set about more than a decade of sustained collecting, sometimes purchasing items which while not to her personal taste she recognised as being worthy of display in her Museum.

Neither Joséphine nor John lived to see the museum open to the public as they had wished but The Bowes Museum stands as their legacy today.

Text © Bowes Museum, 2017