Rosa Petherick Biography

Rosa Clementina Petherick (1871-1931) was a British book illustrator.

Born in Addiscombe, Croydon, she was the eldest of the five surviving daughters of the artist Horace William Petherick (1839-1919) and his wife Clementina Augusta Bewley Petherick, née Bonny (1837-1909). Rosa's elder brother Horace Claude (1867-1869) and elder sister Adeline Maude (1869-1872) both died in early childhood.

The surviving five children grew up in the family home at Maple Lodge, 25 Havelock Road, Addiscombe, Surrey, where their parents lived their whole married lives. Only one of the five girls ever married, the youngest, Dora (1881-1946). She married Albert H. Gilson, a violin and cello repairer, in Croydon in 1922.

Rosa was already an accomplished artist by 1892, when she painted her younger sister Dora slumped in a chair with a violin in her hand.

Her four sisters were talented musicians and played as the Petherick Quartet from about 1905 onwards. The Strad, the leading periodical of the time dealing with stringed instruments and their music, mentions the quartet five times from April 1905 to March 1908. The Violinist reports that they played at the Mozart Society Concert on 15 January 1910. Although Rosa did not play in her sister's quartet, she was also a musician. She played briefly in the Streatham Symphony Orchestra in 1920-21.

Houfe notes that Rosa Petherick participated in design competitions in The Studio. Rosa got honourable mentions for competitions in The Studio:-

June 1896 for designing a private note-paper heading

August 1896 for a black and white drawing of Summer

November 1900 for an illustration for a Child's Story

In 1900, she drew a portrait of her father, which he used as the frontispiece for his books on Antonio Stradivari and on Repairing and Restoring Violins.

She contributed illustrations to numerous children's story books, annuals and periodicals, particularly those produced by Blackie and Son Limited. According to her obituary in The Times, her etchings could be found in the National Portrait Gallery. Peppin states that although here work was pleasing in appearance it was somewhat bland and was characterised by uniformly heavy outlines.

The British Library Catalogue has 55 of her works listed. The Museum of Croydon has 48 of her works in the Croydon Art Collection. However, this is probably only part of her total output. She specialised in paintings and drawings of children with their toys, and commonly shows the children at play with each other or with their toys.

Rosa died in Brighton on 20 December 1931. Her second youngest sister, Eveline May, acted as her executor with a final estate of £1,530 18s 4d.