Feodora Gleichen

The recorded working language is English. The field of work recorded is art of sculpture. Places of work recorded in the authority are London. Works named in the authority record are Statue of Florence Nightingale. Work by Feodora Gleichen is recorded in the collections of Tate. Distinctions recorded are Legion of Honour.

• Name — Lady Feodora Gleichen • Birth Name — Countess Feodora Georgina Maud von Gleichen • Born — 20 December 1861 • Birthplace — London • Died — 22 February 1922 • Place of death — St James's Palace, London • Education — Slade School of Art • Known for — sculptor • Awards — Legion of Honour – (1922)

Born Countess Feodora Georgina Maud von Gleichen, she was the eldest daughter of Prince Victor of Hohenlohe-Langenburg (a British naval officer and sculptor and half-nephew of Queen Victoria) and his morganatic wife, Laura Seymour (daughter of Admiral Sir George Seymour, a remote nephew of Henry VIII's Queen Jane Seymour). Within her family she was called Feo. Her father having been largely disinherited at the time of his marriage, he initially adopted his wife's morganatic comital title. The family was taken in by the Queen and given grace and favour accommodation at St James's Palace. Her brother, Lord Edward Gleichen, became a career military officer and author. Her sister, Lady Helena Gleichen, became a portrait painter. 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 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.

Gleichen studied art in her father's studio at St. James's and later with Alphonse Legros at the Slade School of Art. While maintaining her father's studio she associated with leading artists such as Sir George Frampton, sculptor of the statue of Peter Pan in Kensington Gardens. She completed her studies in Rome in 1891 and regularly exhibited at the Royal Academy from 1892 and at the New Dudley Gallery.

• Illustration — Florence Nightingale - geograph.org.uk - 716771 After her father's death in 1891, she took over his studio in St. James's Palace. Gleichen was a multidisciplinary artist, creating large sculptures for public venues as well as smaller objects, portrait busts, drawings, small bronzes and bas reliefs. She produced many decorative objects such as frames, chalices and small sculptures, sometimes for the use of the royal family. A bas-relief and hand-mirror in jade and bronze won her a bronze medal in 1900 at the Exposition Universelle in Paris. She also helped with illustrations for the Younghusband Expedition to Tibet in 1904.

• Illustration — Diana Fountain, Hyde Park, London • Statue of Queen Victoria surrounded by children, Royal Victoria Hospital, Montreal, Quebec, Canada, 1895. • 1906 bronze statue of Diana, Rotten Row, Hyde Park, United Kingdom. • Relief, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia, 1906. • King Edward VII memorial, King Edward VII Hospital, Windsor, United Kingdom, 1912. • Statue of Florence Nightingale, Derbyshire Royal Infirmary, 1914. • 37th (British) division memorial, Monchy-le-Preux, France, 1921.

During World War I she abandoned her German titles, accepting demotion by the King to the style and rank of a marquess's daughter, 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. Shortly before her death, she was awarded the Légion d'honneur in 1922 and was posthumously made the first woman member of the Royal British Society of Sculptors. The Society subsequently created an award in her name.

The authorities additionally record the headings Lady Feodora Georgina Maud Gleichen, Feodora von Gleichen, Feodora von Gleichen (Lady), Feodora Georgina Maud Gleichen and Feddora von Gleichen Gleichen. Her recorded language was English. She was the child of Prince Victor of Hohenlohe-Langenburg and Laura Williamina Seymour.