Rosa C. Petherick

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).[note 1] Rosa's elder brother Horace Claude (1867-1869) and elder sister Adeline Maude (1869-1872) both died in early childhood.[2]

The children who survived to adulthood were:

• Rosa Clementina (1872-1931),
• Ada Flora (1874-1924),
• Leila Helena (1876-1951),
• Eveline May (1880-1936),
• Dora Valentine (1881-1946).[2]

All the 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.[2]

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.[3]

A musical family

The play hour by Rosa C. Petherick from First Steps. From the Osborne Collection. Courtesy of the Toronto Public Library

Her four sisters were talented musicians and played as the Petherick Quartet[4] from about 1905 onwards.[2] 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.[5] The Violinist report that they played at the Mozart Society Concert on 15 January 1910.[6] 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.[7][2]

Horace William Petherick drawn by Rosa in 1900

In 1900, She drew the portrait of her father that he used as the frontispiece for his books on Antonio Stradivari[15] and on Repairing and Restoring Violins.[16]

She contributed illustrations to numerous children's story books, annuals and periodicals, particularly those produced by Blackie and Son Limited.[17] 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.[18]

The British Library Catalogue has 55 of her works listed. The Museum of Croydon has 48 of her works in the Croydon Art Collection.[7] However, this is probably only part of her total output. AbeBooks listed over 60 different titles for sale on 9 February 2020 to which she had contributed. 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. Most of her work was for very young children, but she did illustrate a few books, school stories mainly, for older children including:

• Avery, Harold (1903). Sale's Sharpshooters: The historical Records of a Very Irregular Corps. London: Nelson.
• Avery, Harold (1906). The House on the Moor - A School Tale. London: Nelson.
• Adams, Ellinor Lily Davenport (1920). On Honour: A School and Home Story. London: Nelson.
• Cowper, E. E. (1921). Celia Win. London: Collins.
• Oxenham, Elsie J. (1926). The Abbey Girls in Town. London: Collins.
• Cowper, E. E. (1927). Cross Winds Farm; or, the Adventure of the silver foxes. London: Chambers.
• Grant, Pamela (1932). The Fortunes of Billy. London: Collins.
• Grant, Pamela (1933). The Pranks of Doria. London: Sunshine Press.

However, in some cases, the illustrations by her were limited to a single colour frontispiece, and in any case the few examples were vastly outnumbered by the books for much younger children, some of which has illustrations on almost every page.

There are 22 books illustrated by her in the Osborne and Lillian H. Smith Collections of children's books at the Toronto Public Library, of which six are available as public domain eBooks.[19] Links for the six eBooks can be found in the external links below.

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.

• Works by Rosa Petherick at Faded Page (Canada)
• Drawing by Rosa C. Petherick that won an honorable mention in The Studio in 1896
• Illustration by Rosa C. Petherick at the Victoria and Albert Museum: Pussy stirring the Christmas pudding (c. 1900)
• Illustration by Rosa C. Petherick at the Victoria and Albert Museum: Three children on Christmas Eve (c. 1900)
• 'I am a child: children in art history' An Italian blog with over two dozen of her illustrations showing children
• Osborne Collection of Early Children's Books
• Sand Castles (1901), 16p., with two signed illustrations by Rosa C. Petherick, - at the Osborne Collection and Lillian H. Smith Collections of Early Children's books at the Toronto Public Library.
• Playtime pictures: for little bright eyes (1905) 82pp, one colour plate and two line drawings signed by Rosa C. Petherick, - at the Osborne Collection and Lillian H. Smith Collections of Early Children's books at the Toronto Public Library.
• First steps : a picture reading book for little folks (1908), Marsh, Mabel A., 84p., illustrated by Rosa C. Petherick and others, - at the Osborne Collection and Lillian H. Smith Collections of Early Children's books at the Toronto Public Library.
• The Toy Bearkins' Christmas tree (1908) 58+p. (some missing), illustrated by Rosa C. Petherwick - at the Osborne Collection and Lillian H. Smith Collections of Early Children's books at the Toronto Public Library.
• Teddy Bear Tales (1910) 11p. - one two-page spread by Rosa C. Petherick - at the Osborne Collection and Lillian H. Smith Collections of Early Children's books at the Toronto Public Library.
• Teddy Bear's Travels (1910), Byron, May Clarissa Gillington, 52p., illustrated by Rosa C. Petherwick - at the Osborne Collection and Lillian H. Smith Collections of Early Children's books at the Toronto Public Library.