Recognising women’s contributions to the Parliamentary Art Collection in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries

This article highlights the work of four women associated with the decoration of the British Houses of Parliament after the 1834 fire and rebuilding project. During the mid-1800s, technical art historian Mary Philadelphia Merrifield (1804–1889) and writer and translator Lady Elizabeth Eastlake (née Rigby) (1809–1893) crucially supported the successful delivery of scientifically challenging painting techniques. Feodora Gleichen (1861–1922) was Parliament’s first commissioned female artist, providing a memorial bust for the Palace of Westminster in 1893. Master mosaicist Gertrude Martin (1881–1952) was the first female artist to work in situ at the Palace, leading a team of female mosaicists to lay four mosaics between 1923 and 1926. Largely overlooked, these four women are important figures in the history of the Palace decorations.