Page:Dictionary of National Biography, Second Supplement, volume 3.djvu/415

 institutions with which he had been associated.

(1834–1909), Sir Leslie Stephen's only sister, and youngest of the family, was born at Kensington on 8 Dec. 1834. Educated at home in a literary atmosphere, she became an occasional contributor at an early age to the 'Saturday Review' and the 'Spectator.' Always religiously inclined, she occupied herself with philanthropic work, and in 1871 published a sympathetic tractate on 'The Service of the Poor.' Acquaintance with Robert Fox and his family at Falmouth interested her in the Society of Friends. After attending several Friends' meetings she joined the society in 1879, being almost the only convert to Quakerism of her generation. She explained the grounds of her conversion in 'Quaker Strongholds' (1891). She remained till her death a loyal and zealous member of the society. Establishing herself in Chelsea after her mother's death in 1875, she continued in spite of feeble health her philanthropic activities. She was on friendly terms with Octavia Hill (1838-1912), and under her influence built in Chelsea a block of tenements which she called Hereford Buildings, and collected the rents herself. She subsequently moved to Westcott, near Dorking, and in 1882 to West Malvern. In 1885 she settled at Cambridge, where she remained till her death. Her niece, Miss Katharine Stephen, was principal of Newnham College, and Miss Stephen occasionally gave addresses there and at Girton. Some of these were published in the 'Hibbert Journal.' A collected volume of addresses and essays, chiefly on rehgious subjects, appeared in 1908 as 'Light Arising.' In 1908 she privately printed a selection of her father's correspondence under the title 'The First Sir James Stephen.' Until deafness disabled her she served on the committee of management of the convalescent home attached to Addenbrooke's hospital. She died at The Porch, Cambridge, on 7 April 1909, and was buried there. After her death was published 'The Vision of Faith and other Essays' (1911), with a memoir by her niece, Katharine Stephen, and notice of her relation with the Society of Friends by Dr. Thomas Hodgkin.

 STEPHENS, FREDERIC GEORGE (1828–1907), art critic, born on 10 Oct. 1828, was the son of Septimus Stephens and his wife, who were for a time during Frederic's youth master and mistress of the Strand Union Workhouse in Cleveland Street. He was lamed for life through an accident at the age of nine. He entered as a student in the Royal Academy on 13 Jan. 1844, on the nomination of Sir William Ross [q. v.], who lived in Fitzroy Square hard by. Here he made the acquaintance of Holman Hunt, of Millais, and subsequently of Rossetti and of Madox Brown. When in process of time the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood was founded in 1848 by Millais and Hohnan Hunt, Stephens was nominated a member by the latter. In 1849 he made some progress with a picture of King Arthur and Sir Bedivere, and in 1850 acted as an assistant to Holman Hunt in the restoration of Rigaud's ceiling decoration at Trinity House. He painted small whole-length portraits of his father and mother, both of which were exhibited at the Royal Academy, the latter in 1852 and the former in 1854. But it soon became evident that Stephens had mistaken his vocation, and he became an art-critic. He contributed some papers on Italian painting to 'The Germ,' the Pre-Raphaehte organ. He was soon writing notices for the ’Critic,' the 'London Review,' 'Dublin University Magazine,' 'Macmillan's Magazine,' 'Weldon's Register,' 'Ttian,' and some American and French periodicals. In 1861 he was introduced by David Masson [q. v. Suppl. II] to Hepworth Dixon, the editor of the 'Athenæum,' and from that time till January 1901 he was the art-critic of that periodical, contributing to every number but two for forty years. His series of articles on 'The Private Collections of England,' correcting and supplementing van Waagen, were invaluable at the time, and are even now often the sole sources of the information they supply. As a critic he was industrious, learned, and careful, accumulating and testing facts most laboriously and conscientiously; but he was out of sympathy with modern developments of his art. He was for many years teacher of art at University College School, where he taught with much seriousness drawing from the antique. He was also secretary of the Hogarth Club. Besides his contributions 