Kathleen Irene Ashburnham Newton (née Kelly; 1854–1882) was an Irish-British model, best known for her many sittings with the French artist James Tissot. Her artistic relationship with Tissot quickly turned into a romantic one, and the two lived together, representing themselves as a married couple, for the rest of her life, which was cut short by tuberculosis. She modeled for Tissot constantly throughout their time together, and Tissot's biographers remembered her as his muse.
Although Tissot's contemporary audience understood his relationship with Newton, biography published during his lifetime did not mention her, and magazine coverage of his work only discussed her obliquely. Tissot referred to her by pseudonyms like la mystérieuse (the mysterious) and la belle irlandaise (the Irish beauty) in the titles of his paintings. His biographers started including her in his story soon after he died in 1902, referring to her by a nickname, Kitty, that he had used. Her full identity entered the historical record in 1954, when her niece Lilian Hervey answered a journalist's plea for information about her.
Early life Kathleen Irene Ashburnham Kelly was born on 9 May 1854Birth date written on Westminster Diocese register, Roman Catholic baptism of 'Kathleen Irene Asburnum [sic] Newton', daughter of 'Kelly', on 6 November 1882 (English Roman Catholic Parish Baptisms, Westminster Diocese). http://www.findmypast.co.uk/transcript?id=PRS/ROMCATH/BAP/WESTM/PH3/006691 [login required]. Retrieved 8 March 2020. in Agra, India. Her father, Charles Frederick Ashburnham Kelly, was employed in the Honourable East India Company's Civil Service and at his marriage in 1838 was a Clerk in the Collector's Office, Agra.Marriage registration on 12 September 1838 in Agra of "Charles F. Kelly, Clerk Coll[ecto]rs office," age 27, and Flora Boyd, "age 19" (British India Office Ecclesiastical Returns, Marriages). http://www.findmypast.co.uk [login required]. Retrieved 27 September 2018. He is often confused with other British or Irish men in India called Charles Kelly or Charles Frederick Kelly, some of whom were army officers; later in life he pretended to have been a Captain in the Royal Artillery or British Horse Artillery. Kathleen's father added "Ashburnham" to his name some time before 1856, probably to distinguish himself from several contemporaries called Charles Kelly working for the Honourable East India Company. By the time of his retirement in 1866 he was Chief Assistant in the Office of the Deputy Auditor and Accountant General of the Punjab in Lahore.Thacker's Directory for Bengal, the North-Western Provinces, the Punjab, the Central Provinces, the Rajpootana States, Oude, and British Burmah, Calcutta and London, 1865, and 1868. Print. The Kelly family had Irish heritage, and Irish cultural identity was rooted firmly in Kathleen, who would be described by James Tissot's 1906 biographer as "a ravishing Irishwoman".Bastard, Georges, "Nos Peintres / James Tissot / Notes Intimes," Revue de Bretagne, November 1906, p. 263: "une ravissante Irlandaise". Print.
She was the youngest child of Charles and his wife Flora Waterloo Kelly, née Boyd.The tombstone of Flora Waterloo Kelly in Tota-Ka-Tal Cemetery, Agra, is inscribed "died of cholera 4 July 1856, aged 35 years 1 month" (Families in British India Society, Summary transcriptions from tombstones in various cemeteries in Agra taken from IOR/R$/539, transcribed by Nancy Wright, 2011). https://search.fibis.org/frontis/bin/aps_detail.php?id=1039478. Retrieved 22 July 2020. Kelly's death in Agra was reported in Allens Indian Mail, September 01, 1856, "Kelly, Flora W., wife of C. F. A. at Agra, aged 35, July 4" (Families in British India Society, Allens Indian Mail, Bengal Deaths, transcribed by John Bertram & John Gannon, 2012). https://search.fibis.org/frontis/bin/aps_detail.php?id=1194117. Retrieved 22 July 2020. After the Indian Rebellion of 1857-1858, Kathleen and her older sister Mary PaulineMisfeldt, Willard E., J. J. Tissot, Prints from the Gotlieb Collection, exh. cat. Virginia: Art Services International, 1991. p. 15. Print. were among the many British women and children sent to England for safety. Charles Kelly entrusted them to his younger brother, Frederick Kelly, MRCSI, a General Practitioner in St Bride's, London, living at 60 Fetter Lane. The girls were baptised at the local Anglican church, Holy Trinity, on 29 August 1860.England: Birth, Marriage, Death & Parish Records, England Births & Baptisms 1538-1975. https://www.findmypast.co.uk [login required]. Retrieved 22 July 2020. During the 1860s both were pupils at Gumley House convent school in Isleworth, Middlesex.Misfeldt 1991.
Marriage, divorce and children
At the age of sixteen, Kathleen left school for an arranged marriage in India. Her eldest brother, George Lloyd Ashburnham Kelly, District Superintendent of Police in the Punjab, had brokered her marriage to an acquaintance, Dr Isaac Newton, a distinguished army surgeon, who had been appointed Superintendent of Vaccination for the Punjab in 1868.Matyjaszkiewicz, Krystyna, "Solving the Mysteries of Kathleen Newton's life: New Findings and Facts", James Tissot: Fashion and Faith / Closing Weekend Symposium Pt. 2, 9 February 2020. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jTJ60uDnw3s. On the voyage to India, Kathleen met and fell in love with "Captain Palliser, an officer in the [Royal] Navy".Cited as co-respondent in Dr. Isaac Newton's divorce proceedings, according to evidence given at the 1924 court case relating to Muriel Violet Mary Newton's claim on Dr. Newton's estate: "A Cheltenham Will Suit," Gloucester Journal, Saturday, 12 April 1924. https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk [login required]. Retrieved 9 April 2018. This was Commander Henry St Leger Bury Palliser, on his way to join HMS Forte in Bombay harbour.Matyjaszkiewicz 2020. After their arrival in Bombay on 2 September 1870,"Bombay / Passengers Arrived. – Per Sumatra," The Homeward Mail, 1 October 1870. https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk [login required]. Retrieved 10 January 2020. Palliser joined his ship while Kathleen travelled north with George and his new wife Kate to their home in Ludhiana, Punjab. There she was introduced to Newton,Gloucester Journal, 12 April 1924. a widower twice her age and with a young son. George died suddenly on 4 December 1870, the cause certified as Delirium Tremens ("DTs").Matyjaszkiewicz 2020. He left no will and a penniless wife, Kate, who was seven months pregnant.Matyjaszkiewicz 2020.
On 3 January 1871, Kathleen and Newton were married in Hoshiarpur, Punjab, home at that time to another of Kathleen's police-superintendent brothers, Frederick,Matyjaszkiewicz 2020. who signed the marriage register as witness.British India Office Ecclesiastical Returns, Marriages, http://www.findmypast.co.uk [login required]. Retrieved 24 September 2018. Almost immediately she had regrets and the marriage was never consummated: Kathleen told Newton "she could never be his wife as she had already committed adultery"."Chelternham Will Suit / Claim to Share in Estate of £105,000 / Resumed Hearing in Chancery Division," Gloucester Journal, 24 May 1924. https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk [login required]. Retrieved 9 April 2018. She ran away to her sister-in-law Kate, who sent her back to Newton.Gloucester Journal, 12 April 1924. But Kathleen left Newton for good on 12 January, writing to him subsequently: "God knows I love that one too dearly to sin with any other. In what I have done I am not so much to blame as others, for our marriage was never consummated. I hope you will marry again, and I ask for your forgiveness." She also told Newton that she was pregnant with Captain Palliser's child and asked Newton to pay for her journey home.Gloucester Journal, 24 May 1924. In May 1871 Newton began divorce proceedings, citing Palliser as co-respondent and Kathleen's letters to Newton as evidence of her infidelity.Gloucester Journal, 24 May 1924. The decree nisi was granted on 30 December,Gloucester Journal, 12 April 1924, and Misfeldt 1991. the day Kathleen gave birth to a daughter, Muriel Violet Mary Newton,Certified copy of an entry of Birth, General Register Office, 19 July 2007. at Charles Kelly's house in Conisbrough, near Doncaster, Yorkshire, where he was living with Kathleen's unmarried sister Mary Pauline.1871 England Census, https://www.ancestry.co.uk [login required]. Retrieved 11 April 2018. Decree absolute was granted on 10 July 1872.Misfeldt 1991.
Little is recorded about Kathleen until 21 March 1876, when she gave birth in London to a son, Cecil George Newton, at 6 (now 12) Hill Road, St John's Wood.Certified copy of an entry of Birth, General Register Office, 19 July 2007. This was the home of Mary Pauline, who in 1874 had married Hervey Augustus Frederick Hervey and had two daughters, Isabelle Mary ("Belle", 1873-1929) and Lilian Ethel ("Lily", 1875-1952), born in Sidmouth, Devon, and nearby Newton Road respectively; a son, Arthur Reginald ("Bob", 1878-1961) would follow.Misfeldt 1991, pp. 15 and 17. Cecil's father was registered as Isaac Newton, though Kathleen had last seen him in January 1871 and they had been divorced almost four years. Some writers have speculated that Cecil was fathered by the anglophile French artist James Tissot, who was living within a short distance at 17 (now 44) Grove End Road, but this is unlikely. His first certain portrayal of Kathleen Newton is the etched Portrait of Mrs N., also known as La Frileuse, completed in late December 1876 after publication of Tissot's Ten Etchings portfolio. Ten Etchings was designed by Tissot to showcase the best of his recent work and would surely have included a portrait of Kathleen if they had become intimate in 1875.Matyjaszkiewicz 2020. Most probably Palliser was Cecil's father, as he could have continued seeing Kathleen after returning to England.
Life with Tissot
James Tissot had enjoyed a decade of artistic success in Paris, specialising in modern life and historical-dress pictures, before the Franco-Prussian War and siege of Paris in 1870-1871. After his involvement in the events of the 1871 Paris Commune,Tillier, Bertrand, "Tissot and the Traumas of the 'Terrible Year'" in Buron, Melissa E. (ed.), James Tissot. San Francisco: Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco/DelMonico Books-Prestel, 2019. he was offered work in London, where he found eager buyers for his pictures and was able, by late 1872, to buy a house in Grove End Road.Matyjaszkiewicz, Krystyna, "Chronology" and "Tissot's 'Genius' Picture-Selling in Britain" in Buron 2019. He relied on a range of sitters, but from 1877–1882 his most frequent, and often only, model was Kathleen Newton. According to Kathleen's niece Lilian Hervey, Tissot "could scarcely help noticing the pretty Mrs Newton" going past his house and "called to ask if he might paint her portrait. Over the sittings [presumably for the etched Portrait of Mrs N.] they fell deeply in love, and soon [in 1877] Mrs Newton went to live with Tissot."Ross, Marita, "The Truth About Tissot," Everybody's, 15 June 1946, p. 6. Her children remained at Hill Road with their aunt, cousins, and shared nanny, but visited Tissot's house for picnics and entertainment.Matyjaszkiewicz, Krystyna, "Tissot, Jacques Joseph (1836-1902)", Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. http://www.oxforddnb.com [login required]. Accessed 1 May 2016.