Lady Feodora Georgina Maud Gleichen (20 December 1861 – 22 February 1922) was a British sculptor of figures and portrait busts and designer of decorative objects.
On 15 December 1885, the Court Circular announced the Queen's permission for Feodora's mother to share her father's rank at the Court of St James, and henceforth they were known as TSH Prince and Princess Victor of Hohenlohe-Langenburg. But the Queen did not extend that privilege to their four children, although she confirmed use of their German style as count and countesses. In 1889 Feodora and her sisters Valda and Helena were bridesmaids to the Louise, Princess Royal and the Earl of Fife. On 12 June 1913 Feodora and her sisters were granted precedence before the daughters of dukes in the peerage of England by George V.[2]
After her father's death in 1891, she took over his studio inside of St James's Palace.[3][4]
Gleichen was a multidisciplinary artist, creating large sculptures for public venues as well as smaller objects,[5] portrait busts,[6][7] drawings,[8][9] small bronzes[10] and bas reliefs. She produced many decorative objects such as frames,[11] chalices and small sculptures, sometimes for the use of the royal family.[12] A bas-relief and hand-mirror in jade and bronze won her a bronze medal in 1900 at the Exposition Universelle in Paris.[13] She also helped with illustrations for the Younghusband Expedition to Tibet in 1904.
Her 1921 work Head of a Girl is included in the permanent collection of the Tate Gallery.[23] A sculptural relief titled Queen Hatasu of Egypt is included in the permanent collection of the Art Gallery of New South Wales.[24]
Later life
During World War I she abandoned her German titles, accepting demotion by the King to the style and rank of a marquess's daughter,[25] by Royal Warrant of Precedence, pursuant to the King's dynastic reform of titles and names during establishment of the House of Windsor in 1917.
Following an operation for appendicitis in 1922, she died at her apartment in St James's Palace.[13][26][27] Shortly before her death, she was awarded the Légion d'honneur in 1922 and was later posthumously made the first woman member of the Royal British Society of Sculptors.[28][29] The Society subsequently created an award in her name.[30]
Legacy
Her youngest sister, Lady Helena, described her in her memoirs:
"She was an irreparable loss to me in every way and her advice in my work had always been the greatest help and encouragement. Her vision was always clear in all matters belonging to others and she seldom made a mistake in giving advice when others came to her in difficulties ; she was never offended when her advice was not taken and she had no petty meannesses. She had undying zeal and thoroughness in all she gave her mind to and was the most responsive person that ever existed, equally ready to enjoy anything with you, or, if you were out to fight, always equally ready to oblige. If you wanted an argument she would hurl herself in on the opposite side, without a moment’s hesitation and with the clearest reasons for doing so, made up on the spur of the moment. The most charming of companions, too, as she had the widest possible powers of perception and enjoyment. Her generous praise of others and her ability to make them feel that she appreciated them and their work or thought them worth listening to, drew the best out of people, and even the stupidest felt clever when talking to her. In her own work she was intensely prolific in ideas, her difficulty, she often said, was in eliminating, never in creating."[31]
Ancestry
Ancestors of Lady Feodora Gleichen
16. Christian Albrecht, Prince of Hohenlohe-Langenburg
