The Times/1938/Obituary/Augustus Frederick Montalba

MR. AUGUSTUS MONTALBA

A correspondent writes:—

Mr. Edward Augustus Montalba, the last surviving member of the Montalba family, whose house at Camp Sant'Agnese was a gathering place for artists in the latter part of the nineteenth century, died at Venice on June 17 at the age of 94. Born at Bristol in 1843, he was the son of Anthony Montalba. A naturalized British subject of Swedish origin, and of an English mother. Though he possessed none of the artistic gifts for which his sisters Clara, the water-colour painter, and Hilda, the sculptor, were celebrated, Augustus was nevertheless a remarkable old gentleman in his way, and the words which once appeared in a local paper below a caricature of him, Je suis le frère de mes soeurs, failed to do justice to this old-time character.

In his broad-brimmed hat, his immaculate white suit and spats, with a market basket on his arm, Augustus Montalba was until last summer an almost daily visitor to the Venice market, fore culinary matters were, for him, one of the principal items on the day's agenda. But to those who enjoyed his friendship he loved to relate happenings at Venice in bygone days. By his death the British community at Venice has lost its oldest member and one who was ever ready to contribute generously to a good cause.