Isabella Lilias Trotter, born in 1853, seemed destined for fame. The well-known art critic, John Ruskin, told her she could “be the greatest painter of the age” if she dedicated herself to art. She had the inclination, wealth, and talent to follow his advice. So why has no one today heard of Isabella Lilias Trotter?
Artist's Victorian Background
Lilias had every encouragement to pursue her dreams. Her father, Alexander, and mother, Isabella, fostered the interests of each of their children. Lilias, or Lily as she was called, sketched well from five years of age. She imbibed the Victorian fascination with botanical art and often tried to capture the exact shades of a landscape in her watercolors. Although well-educated she had no formal art training until after 1876.
John Ruskin's Protégé
When Lilias was 23, she and her mother took a European tour. While in Italy they met the notorious British art critic, John Ruskin. He grudgingly agreed to look at some samples of Lilias’s work on his holiday. Much to Lily’s surprise, Ruskin praised them and offered to mentor her.
Miss Trotter was not the first female protégé to the critic's world. But she was different from the others. Her genuine talent amazed Ruskin. The aging critic declared that she possessed a unique gift and could achieve immortal things if she would dedicate herself to art.
Lilias had a serious head on her young shoulders. She weighed her mentor's words. He certainly offered a dazzling prospect. But she questioned whether it was the future she really wanted. She had started work in a home for reclaimed prostitutes a few months before. The desire to make lives, as well as canvases, beautiful, was already pulling at her heart.
Lilias and Christianity
Lily’s interest in the poor ran deeper than social reform. It had spiritual implications.
In 1874, twenty-one-year-old Lilias attended a spiritual retreat at the Broadlands estate. The innovative retreat would later turn into the annual Keswick Convention. The week of prayer, teaching, and lively discussion of spiritual topics impacted Lilias in a profound way. After her subsequent meeting with evangelist D.L. Moody the next year, life as a Christian took preeminence for Lily.
It was a natural development. Long before Lilias attended any spiritual retreats she had an inclination for spiritual matters. She had never engaged in the husband hunt and social climbing that occupied so many Victorian young ladies. It bored and disgusted her.
The appeal of an artist's life, however, was different. Ruskin himself believed firmly in the relationship between art, morality, and society. Yet she found him presenting her with a hard decision. Should she give her life to God as an artist or a missionary?
Missionary to Algeria
After a significant time of prayer and contemplation, Lilias made her choice.
She wrote, “I see as clear as daylight now I cannot give myself to painting in the way he [Ruskin] means and continue still ‘to seek . . . first the kingdom of God and his righteousness.’”
“Seeking first the kingdom of God,” to Lily, meant continued work in the London slums. But in the summer of 1887 events took another turn. Influenced by two friends who planned to go abroad as missionaries, she started dreaming of Algeria.
Lilias Trotter and the Muslim Sufi
Lilias and two friends pooled their resources and set sail for the Algerian coast in 1888. The courageous (some called them fool-hardy) trio knew no one, spoke no Arabic, and were unsupported by any mission board or group. Yet their leader, Lilias, successfully made friends with hundreds of native Algerians and Tunisians, taught herself the language, and eventually formed the Algiers Mission Band (now incorporated into Arab World Ministries).
Although she gave up a career as a painter, Lily never lost her artist's eye. Her journals shimmer with beautiful watercolor sketches. Some depict courtyard fountains in Algiers while others capture a sunset over the Saharan sands.
She wrote, spoke, and traveled tirelessly during the next forty years of her life. In an almost unprecedented honor, various Muslim Sufi leaders invited her to address them on several occasions. She created one of her most beautiful books for the Sufi mystics, entitled The Way of the Sevenfold Secret.
Lilias Trotter's journals and books offer insight into the spiritual depth and artistic talent of this Victorian Englishwoman. When she died in 1928, she left a legacy not on the walls of an art museum, but in the hearts of all who knew her.
Sources
Harvey and Hey. They Knew Their God, Vol. I. M.O.V.E. Press: Stoke on the Trent, 1974.
Rockness, Miriam Huffman. A Passion for the Impossible. Northwind Book: MI, 1999.
Trotter, Lilias. Parables of the Cross. Accessed online at Gutenberg.org: May 13, 2010.
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